Tax & regulation
Residence, domicile, cross-border rules and the regulators watching private wealth.
Malaysia opens its family office regime to multi-family offices
Budget 2027 adds a multi-family office model to Malaysia's single family office scheme in Forest City, which the Securities Commission says holds an indicative RM20.8bn. The tax treatment of the new model is still undefined.
Badenoch pledges to take family homes out of inheritance tax. For large estates, the taper is the detail to watch.
On 7 October 2026 the Conservative leader promised that no one would pay inheritance tax on a family home left to children or grandchildren, plus a further £1m tax-free allowance for couples. It is an opposition pledge, published without detail, three weeks before a Labour Budget.
69,000 people told HMRC they were leaving. The wealthy mostly use a different form.
P85 departure notices rose 32% to 69,000 in 2025/26, according to HMRC data published by UHY Hacker Young on 29 September 2026. The form is built for employees reclaiming PAYE, which limits what it says about wealthy leavers.
HMRC has given every UK billionaire a named handler. Advisers are asking what it is entitled to see.
HM Revenue and Customs wrote to every billionaire with a UK tax footprint over the summer, appointing a customer compliance manager to each. The pushback became public on 24 September 2026, and it is a question about statutory authority, not about willingness to pay.
Tax due before the money can be reached: STEP asks the Treasury to fix the 2027 pension IHT rules
STEP has written to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury with eight practical problems in the pension inheritance tax regime due in April 2027, including a sequencing trap where tax falls due before executors can access the pension.
The FCA gets a date: 2028 for AML supervision of lawyers, accountants and trustees
The Home Office published its anti-money laundering and asset recovery strategy for 2026 to 2029 on 15 September. Buried in 101 pages is a timetable that matters to every private client adviser: supervision moves to the FCA in 2028.
Golden visa interest is up sevenfold. The index saying so counts searches, not applicants.
La Vida's Golden Visa Index puts investor-migration demand at more than seven times its 2016 level. The figure is built from search impressions on the firm's own advertising, and it arrives as Spain and Malta close their routes.
Britain's third-largest taxpayer is reported to be moving to Athens
Bloomberg reported on 8 September 2026 that Chris Rokos is preparing to shift his tax residency to Greece. One departure proves nothing about a wealth exodus, but the mechanics of the move are worth reading closely.
The SEC sends its retail private markets proposal to the White House, performance fees included
A draft SEC rule reached the Office of Management and Budget on 31 August 2026. It would widen retail access to private markets through registered funds and rewrite the framework limiting performance fees to qualified clients.
A £400,000 fee instead of a £2m investment: the FCA closes its Dolfin file
On 26 August 2026 the FCA fined and banned two former Dolfin Financial (UK) executives and moved to ban the firm's co-founder over a scheme that let at least 99 people obtain UK investor visas without putting £2m of their own money at risk.
Fewer than 1% of CGT payers accounted for 45% of a record £24.2bn bill
HMRC's capital gains tax statistics for 2024-25, released on 27 August 2026, show liabilities up 89% to £24.2bn on £127bn of declared gains. The concentration at the top is the number that matters.
Singapore reworks its family office tax conditions, and sets a November deadline
MAS Circular FDD Cir 05/2026 changes the section 13O, 13OA and 13U conditions for single family office funds from 1 August 2026: phased hiring, wider spending bands, a simplified deployment test, and a three-month banking grace period.
UK inheritance tax receipts reach £3.2bn in four months, with the pension change still to come
HMRC's August 2026 bulletin puts inheritance tax receipts for April to July 2026 at £3.2bn. Growth has slowed, but frozen thresholds and the April 2027 pension rules point the other way.
French tax authority breach exposes data on 678,000 taxpayers and businesses
France's DGFiP has confirmed that tax and land registry data on 678,000 individuals and companies was extracted, two weeks after Liechtenstein's beneficial ownership register was attacked.
FinCEN ends beneficial ownership reporting for US entities
A FinCEN final rule issued on 11 August 2026 permanently exempts US companies and US persons from Corporate Transparency Act reporting, and deletes the data already filed. Foreign entities registered in a US state still report.
Hong Kong's family office tax bill is still moving, and officials are considering widening it again
The Financial Times reported on 11 August that Hong Kong officials are weighing extending the reliefs in its pending funds and family office tax bill to proprietary trading firms. The bill is still before the Legislative Council.
China starts taxing offshore trusts, and enforcement has already begun
Beijing has brought offshore trusts into the personal income tax net. Weeks later, reporting on fines against Hong Kong brokerages shows the enforcement side is running in parallel.
SEIA builds a tax unit and rents its family office layer
The $32.6 billion Los Angeles adviser has hired an LPL tax executive to run a new division, while buying in family governance and fiduciary accounting through Baker Tilly.
Liechtenstein's beneficial ownership register breached, 31,000 entities exposed
Hackers exfiltrated data on around 31,000 companies, foundations and trusts from Liechtenstein's Register of Beneficial Owners, reopening the privacy debate for wealthy families.
Citywealth's new Transatlantic Select list maps the US–UK advice corridor
Citywealth has unveiled its Top 30 Transatlantic Select: Advisors and Managers 2026, naming the lawyers, tax specialists and wealth managers who serve families with assets on both sides of the Atlantic.
A new chancellor, and advisers ask for tax stability for wealthy families
John Healey became the UK's sixth chancellor in just over four years on 20 July 2026. Advisers want an end to constant speculation on inheritance tax and pensions.
New SEC guidance could name the family offices behind activist campaigns
Staff interpretations issued by the SEC in July may require activist funds to disclose the investors financing a campaign, including family offices that value their anonymity.
Court of Appeal upholds 2003 'home loan' inheritance tax scheme in Elborne
On 13 July 2026 the Court of Appeal dismissed HMRC's appeal in Elborne, holding that a 2003 home loan scheme kept a £1.8m family home outside the estate for inheritance tax.
Paris appeal court hands Arnault a €22.5m tax bill over an LVMH holding structure
A French administrative court has upheld tax assessments of about €22.5m against Bernard Arnault and his wife, tied to payments from a holding structure connected to their LVMH stake. Arnault will appeal to the Conseil d'État.
South Africa rules out an annual wealth tax, citing capital flight
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told Parliament the government is not planning a net wealth tax, arguing income tax raises far more and that a levy would push the top tax base to relocate.
What the 'family office' label does not buy: an SEC suit over $40m in note sales
The SEC has sued a firm called Sanders Family Office, alleging it sold around $40 million in promissory notes without a broker licence. The case is a reminder that the label carries no regulatory weight.
Henley drops its millionaire headcount. The 2026 migration report changes method after years of criticism.
The Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2026 has abandoned its precise count of millionaires on the move, dropped its sole author, and replaced the headline number with a competitiveness score. The UK figure it once put near a doubling now reads as a 15 per cent rise.
Cross-border families: residency and the non-dom shift
Wealthy families are more mobile than ever, and tax regimes are moving under them. Why residency planning is now a continuous discipline, not a one-off.
Buy to leave: the departing non-doms who are keeping their London houses empty
Non-doms leaving the UK are not selling their London properties. They are holding them vacant, managing tax residency around the 90-day threshold.
The UK non-dom regime is gone. Here is what replaced it.
After more than two centuries, the UK abolished the non-domiciled tax status from 6 April 2025. The replacement is a four-year relief for new arrivals and a transition facility for everyone else.
The week in family offices
One email a week: what moved across family offices and private wealth, and what it means.