Emma Haley
Emma Haley, TEP, is a senior associate at Boodle Hatfield with many years experience in dealing with all aspects of wills, capital taxation and succession planning as well as UK and offshore trusts.
Emma currently heads up the technical know-how team for the Private Client & Tax department and is responsible for in-house training, knowledge management and precedents.
Boodle Hatfield is a leading private client law firm, renowned for providing first-class and practical legal advice to wealthy clients around the world. Boodle Hatfield advises on all issues affecting private clients from succession and estate planning to resolving trust and estate disputes, or advising on family breakdown.
Practice Areas
Panels
- Consulting Editorial Board
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 1993
Membership
- STEP
- Law Society Capital Taxes Sub-Committee
4 Contributions by Emma Haley
PRACTICE NOTES
Lifetime IHT Planning—Outright Gifts vs Trusts, Will Co-ordination, Timing, and CGT/Income Tax Implications
From an IHT standpoint, the overarching purpose of lifetime planning is to arrange an individual’s assets during life so the eventual IHT burden on death is minimised. This can be done in several ways, including putting money into a range of tax-efficient holdings and identifying, securing and augmenting IHT exemptions available and valuable reliefs. A central element of lifetime IHT planning is both gifting during life to significantly shrink the overall estate that will be owned on death, and this Practice Note focuses on that theme. Lifetime IHT planning may equally entail creating or reviewing a person’s Will. Where a strategy blends lifetime transfers with Will structuring, the two strands should not be viewed separately. It is vital to consider the provisions of any Will when lifetime gifts are contemplated, and the converse applies. Even if a client chooses not to undertake any lifetime gifting, they should at the very least think about making a Will. Likewise, getting the order of priorities right is key. Before starting any lifetime gifting, it is essential to carefully consider the client’s own personal requirements and present and future financial security. Tax efficiencies should never be achieved at the cost of the well-being of...
Private Client
PRACTICE NOTES
Pilot trusts and IHT after Finance (No 2) Act 2015: same-day additions, related settlements, Will planning, creation and merging
A pilot trust is a lifetime settlement created with a token amount (often a nominal cash sum such as £10) and it remains inactive until more money or assets are later added thereafter. Setting up a trust in this fashion is very common indeed. The starter sum brings the trust into being so it stands ready to receive the principal assets at an appropriate future time.
Pilot trusts in practice
A great many trusts begin life as pilot trusts. The core assets of the trust might be introduced very shortly after the pilot starts. For instance, an individual intending to place property into trust could first establish a pilot and then soon after move UK land to the trustees by an HM Land Registry transfer. Equally, some pilots may not be topped up for several years and will largely lie dormant in the interim period. As another illustration, a pilot trust can act as a vehicle to which pension death benefits may later be paid, should those benefits become payable. Historically, a series of pilot trusts was sometimes used for tax planning purposes...
Private Client
PRACTICE NOTES
Transfers between spouses and civil partners: UK IHT, CGT and income tax—spousal exemptions, FA 2025 long-term residence, anti-avoidance, separation rules, and planning using NRB, TNRB and RNRB
It is common for spouses or civil partners to wish to give gifts to one another, as sharing possessions is a familiar feature of coupledom. This reflects the everyday reality of jointly owned property and pooled resources. The label ‘spouses’ in this Practice Note covers both married pairs and those in a registered civil partnership, of any gender. For clarity, the term is applied inclusively and neutrally. Balancing the pair’s holdings so each enjoys personal financial stability can be prudent, and it also opens up the widest opportunities for tax planning. For instance, where one spouse is taxed on income at a higher rate than the other, it is logical to shift more income-producing assets to the spouse taxed at lower rates. An equivalent approach works for capital gains tax (CGT): aim for each spouse to use their annual exemption on chargeable disposals and to be taxed at the lowest rates available. Since spouses may transfer assets between themselves without triggering inheritance tax (IHT), CGT or income tax, there is extensive scope to arrange their finances in the most tax-efficient way, both now and in future planning, for the couple together...
Private Client
PRACTICE NOTES
Woodlands Relief under UK Inheritance Tax: conditions, elections, deferred charges on timber sales or gifts, APR/BPR interaction, planning points; notes APR £1m cap from 2026 and UK land restriction
FORTHCOMING CHANGE :
In the inaugural Budget of the new Labour administration on 30 October 2024, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, announced that the currently unlimited 100% rate of APR will be restricted to the first £1m of value, taking into account the value of business property relief held by the taxpayer and which is also eligible for 100% relief. This change is expected to take effect on 6 April 2026...
Private Client
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