Can a married woman set up a HUF with just her parents?

The following article was first published in the Mint newspaper on 08th August, 2023. The same was written by our Private Client team at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, who frequently publish their comments and opinions in the Mint. The online version of the article can be found here.

Can a Hindu family, comprising a married woman, her parents and her two very young children form a Hindu undivided family (HUF)?

—Saranya NTContinue Reading Can a married woman set up a HUF with just her parents?

Leaving on Jet Plane Key Legal Considerations for Business Owners Migrating Abroad

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…’

-John Denver

The opening line of John Denver’s iconic song ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ may seem prosaic at first glance, but it describes the single most important act before embarking on any journey – packing your bags! While packing for a vacation in Monaco or St. Tropez is fairly easy, ‘packing’ for an offshore migration is likely to parachute you into a regulatory and compliance maze.Continue Reading Leaving on Jet Plane – Key Legal Considerations for Business Owners Migrating Abroad

Succession Toolkit

The Private Client team at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas shares their comments and opinions in an article, which was published by the Outlook Money on 1st April, 2022 and the online edition of the same can be found here.

Intestate succession planning laws in India are unfavourable for women. So, women must use the tools available and become the decision-makers in how their assets are transferred. The Covid pandemic has shown that life is fragile, and tragedy can strike any time. In the course of conversations with clients, we find that most women do not undertake succession planning, and even fewer understand the need for an estate plan. This is mainly due to lack of awareness, and because they usually tend to look to their husbands and/or other family members to deal with their assets. This needs to change, especially at a time when women are becoming wealth creators in their own right and are increasingly running large family businesses. Many women today are also inheriting valuable portions of the family business.

One can execute a Will just by signing it and having it attested by two witnesses. There is no requirement for having the Will mandatorily registered in India

Continue Reading Your Succession Toolkit

Will Making
Source: Livemint.com

The Private Client team at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas shares their comments and opinions in an article in the  following Q&A which was published by the Mint Newspaper on 12th February, 2022 and the online edition of the same can be found here.

A person wishes that his property after his death be given to a memorial trust or a cancer hospital. At present, he wishes to have his house with him for stay during his lifetime. Is there any way by which he can make some kind of nomination so that his house (after his death) could be given to the cancer trust to be used by people visiting Mumbai for treatment?

—Iyer

Continue Reading How to bequeath a property to charity?

Receiving charitable donations? What you should think about

Introduction

Charitable organisations, irrespective of the scale of their activities, seek and accept donations in various forms. Predictably, payment and receipt of donations, susceptible as they may be to misuse, are subject to regulation in India, and there are multiple legal complexities that need to be navigated through in connection with these.

In this article, we identify some questions that donee organisations must consider when accepting charitable donations in order to suitably address various legal issues and formalities applicable.
Continue Reading Receiving charitable donations? What you should think about.

 TO TRUST OR NOT TRUST - MUMBAI ITAT AFFIRMS EXCLUSION OF CORPUS FUND OF OFFSHORE TRUST FROM INDIAN WEALTH TAX

Background:

Creation of private trusts have been considered as a popular method by rich families for succession planning. Trusts are a legal arrangement whereby assets are placed into the care of an individual who manages them for the benefit of someone else. Trust can be further classified into specific or discretionary based on the scheme of distribution of the trust fund. However, in recent times, offshore trust structures are suspected to be more commonly used as a means of money laundering than lawful tax planning. Consequently, the Income-tax Department has been unveiling various private offshore trusts and imposing tax liability on the beneficiary owners. This has led to an increase in reassessment proceedings and dissatisfaction among the residents for being subjected to wrongful tax liability. Recently, the Mumbai Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (“ITAT”) provided relief to Mr. Yashovardhan Birla and held that offshore trusts are considered to be acceptable form of tax planning and a beneficiary of an offshore discretionary trust cannot be taxed on the entire corpus fund merely because he has been provided with the power to appoint/ reappoint trustee. The case is discussed in detail below:
Continue Reading To Trust Or Not Trust: Mumbai ITAT affirms exclusion of corpus fund of Offshore Trust From Indian Wealth Tax