{"title":"Interests in possession: a critique of Hall <scp>v</scp> HMRC","authors":"James Anson-Holland","doi":"10.1093/tandt/ttad079","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Does a beneficiary with a life interest in a particular property under a will have an enforceable right to occupy that property in circumstances where a third party voluntarily pays an estate debt that could only otherwise have been satisfied by the executors selling the property? The recent decision in Hall v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 32 (TC) held that no such right existed and, as a result, the life-interest beneficiary did not have an ‘interest in possession’ for inheritance tax purposes. This article questions that result by arguing that the third-party payments discharged the estate debt and granted the life-interest beneficiary an enforceable right to occupy the property following the administration of the estate such that an ‘interest in possession’ must arise.","PeriodicalId":43396,"journal":{"name":"Trusts & Trustees","volume":"36 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Trusts & Trustees","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/tandt/ttad079","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Does a beneficiary with a life interest in a particular property under a will have an enforceable right to occupy that property in circumstances where a third party voluntarily pays an estate debt that could only otherwise have been satisfied by the executors selling the property? The recent decision in Hall v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 32 (TC) held that no such right existed and, as a result, the life-interest beneficiary did not have an ‘interest in possession’ for inheritance tax purposes. This article questions that result by arguing that the third-party payments discharged the estate debt and granted the life-interest beneficiary an enforceable right to occupy the property following the administration of the estate such that an ‘interest in possession’ must arise.