Wedlake Bell Insights

    • In Trust
    • Dec 4, 2025

    In Trust – December 2025

    As the dust begins to settle on last week’s Budget and the initial flurry of headlines subsides, we can breathe a sigh of relief that for now, we know the direction of travel on tax policy. As such, we expect

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    • Insights
    • Dec 4, 2025

    Bad buyers and bad leavers: sellers face an imbalanced fight

    What is a Bad Leaver Clause? A bad leaver clause typically appears in a shareholders’ agreement, articles of association, or a sale and purchase agreement of shares (SPA). It defines the circumstances in which a departing shareholder must transfer their

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    • In Trust
    • Dec 3, 2025

    Budget 2025 and residential property: time to assess

    Individual homeowners High value council tax surcharge The new high value council tax surcharge (the surcharge) is less severe than many of us expected from a long feared “mansion tax”, but it will still have a significant impact on those

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    • In Trust
    • Dec 3, 2025

    Trust compliance update: new HMRC mandatory registration rules

    Amendments made to the International Tax Compliance Regulations 2025 have resulted in a new mandatory registration requirement for trusts that are defined as “financial institutions” (FI) or “trustee-documented trusts” (TDT) for international tax information exchange purposes, with existing affected trusts

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    • In Trust
    • Dec 3, 2025

    Budget 2025: Chancellor announces transferability of agricultural property relief and business property relief

    The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, used her highly anticipated Budget on 26 November 2025 to announce that the £1 million allowance for agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) will be transferable between spouses and civil partners with effect

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    • Building Safety Act
    • Nov 27, 2025

    Updating Contracts for Building Safety Regime

    In this short video Partners Sarah Elliott (Head of Construction) and Matthew Pexton explore why standard form contracts, such as JCT, need to be amended to reflect the new Building Safety Act requirements.

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    • In Trust
    • Nov 26, 2025

    Budget 2025: an end to the speculation

    While perhaps not as bad as was feared, the announcements confirmed today, from the “high value council tax surcharge” to income tax rate hikes for property, dividend and savings income, will shape decisions for families, trustees, and investors over the

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    • Insights
    • Nov 26, 2025

    Mitchell v Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber

    Sheikh Mohamed Al Jaber, an international businessman, had been the director of MBI International & Partners Inc, a British Virgin Islands corporation. In March 2009, the company acquired 891,761 shares in JJW Inc (another company with connections to the Sheikh).

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    • Building Safety Act
    • Nov 19, 2025

    BSA in practice: challenges and evolving solutions

    Gateway 2: BSR Bottlenecks Unsurprisingly, delays in securing Gateway 2 approvals from the BSR remain high on the agenda.  The delays have a domino effect: developers are unable to commence construction, and investors are reluctant to release funds which in

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