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There is such a thing as a reasonable excuse for failing to file your self-assessment tax return. However, in an unusual case, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) ruled that a businessman's alleged debilitating fear of making a mistake in his return did not...

Alternative investments may offer attractive rates of return, but they should never be entered into without professional advice. A High Court case concerning numerous small investors who staked their life savings on the success of an ill-fated hotel...

Antique restrictive covenants are found in the title deeds of many period properties and can have a deadening effect on development opportunities. However, as an Upper Tribunal (UT) ruling showed , they are not written in stone. A large suburban house was...

No one knows when death will come calling and it is equally a truism that, if you fail to make a professionally drafted will, you store up trouble for your loved ones after you are gone. As an unusual Family Court ruling showed, that is particularly so if...

Boundaries between properties are usually marked by a line on a small-scale Land Registry plan but they may be invisible on the ground. Precisely that difficulty was the root cause of a bitter dispute between owners of two riverside homes. The owners could...

Businesses that operate in highly regulated fields can be permanently shut down at the stroke of an official pen. However, as a case concerning the wholesale liquor trade made plain , the law requires that such decisions are reasonable. The case involved a...

There can be few questions of greater importance than 'Who is my parent?'. A judge made that point in taking the unprecedented step of enabling rectification of an adopted woman's birth certificate to reflect the identity of her natural father. The...

Directors who cause insolvent companies to trade when there is no reasonable prospect of creditors being paid put not just their livelihoods but their careers on the line. That was certainly so in the case of a media company director who was disqualified...

In a ruling which will be greeted with joy by the growing community of self-builders , a couple who made a very handsome return on their 'Grand Designs'-style project have been relieved of a six-figure Capital Gains Tax (CGT) bill. The couple bought a plot...

Most people understand that companies have legal identities separate from the individuals who control them. The application of that basic principle can, however, be problematic and certainly posed a difficult conundrum in a case concerning an agricultural...