IN THE NICK OF TIME

The last working day of the tax year and was it any wonder that I came in this evening and collapsed in a heap? There are occasions when in resolving financial and property issues between clients there can be good reasons to transfer certain assets in one tax year and others in the next. However, generally it makes life much easier for solicitors and their clients if such transactions can be identified well in advance and matters not left until the eleventh hour. Why then oh why did I find myself just minutes before our normal closing time driving through the Durham Dales to ensure that a deed was signed? I did it because it ended up being a challenge in which we overcame one party stranded in a car park with an unresponsive mobile phone; another at the other end of the globe with an intermittent internet service; an argument as to the provisions of a deed and a deadline to meet. We finally did it, but please, please dear clients follow my advice and instruct your lawyers at the beginning of a tax year and not at the end, carry your phone charger with you at all times, leave the safari till the legalities are complete and don’t ever separate until you’ve had legal advice on the tax implications.