Overseas Chambers of Peter Harris

Overseas Chambers
c/o Addington Chambers
160, Fleet Street,
London EC4A 2DQ,
United Kingdom
https://addingtonchambers.com

Fellow of the European Law Institute Vienna
https://overseaschambers.com/
Barrister at Law - Regulated by
the Bar Standards Board
Bar Mututal insurance: 8015/009

Usufruits and their drafting to fit the Brits

February 3rd 2016

Given the continuing confusion as to the status of usufruits under English tax law, owing largely to the errors in their April 2013 Newsletter as published by HMRC and their subsequent reiteration of their unlawful position in 2015, Peter has outlined briefly certain precautions that need to be taken to clarify the language used in any acte creating the French dismemberment into the two separate legal property rights defined under the Code civil, so as to ensure that HMRC cannot misstranslate these to their in"equitable" ends.

However it would be unwise for any French notary or avocat to attempt to draft such an acte for an individual likely to be  or to become subject to British IHT on their estate/succession to do so without their client taking Peter's advice and assistance as to the French drafting.

Please contact Peter for advice if you are having a dismemberment drafted in a lifetime gift or if you are an heir taking land in France under French law and are receiving the usufruit as a surviving spouse or the nue-propriété as a child.

http://www.overseaschambers.com/media/17890/usufruits%20and%20their%20drafting%20to%20fit%20the%20brits.pdf