Marlborough

Marlborough has an established Protected Cell Company (PCC), Marson, which is proving to be increasingly popular with high net worth clients. The PCC has become increasingly desirable since the non-domicile legislation was wisely introduced by the British Government in the 2008 budget. This desirability is enhanced by the cost of a PCC cell being less than claiming residential non-domicile status in the UK.

The PCC structure acts as a personal investment fund, as each individual wishing to make use of the structure acquires shares relating to their own cell. Each cell owns 100% of the share capital of a Guernsey company. This company will in turn own the various underlying assets.  

For tax treatment the PCC defers both Income and Capital Gains Tax and can be held over an indefinite time frame. Ultimately at time of exit the cell can be treated as Income or as a Capital Gain or in some cases have complete tax mitigation.

Gordon and Alastair really don’t like the UK economy do they? We are not going to analyse the changes, which have already been picked apart by people far more qualified than us, however we would like to mention 3 examples of planning techniques that are still effective post 5th April: Non-UK resident settlor trust – with a class of beneficiaries that may include UK residents this will provide effective deferral for UK CGT, income tax and IHT providing cash is not received in the UK. Not as good as the old regime but still something that is straightforward and we all know about. Funds can be lent in on commercial terms from the UK. PCC – Our non-close, offshore fund PCC is an effective deferral vehicle for CGT and income tax that is applicable to UK residents whether domiciled or not. Another advantage is that there is no requirement for a family member who is non-UK resident.  Very Private Unit Trusts – Only works for income tax but useful for certain income producing investments. It is generally less expensive than the PCC route.