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Lee Young reviews ‘Personal Tax Planning: Principles and Practice’ by Malcolm Finney (Published by Bloomsbury Professional)

On a weekend when the latest Harry Potter extravaganza is released at the cinema, instead of enjoying the film with the family I am reviewing Personal Tax Planning: Principles and Practice by Malcolm Finney.

J K Rowling he isn’t, and his characters, although always seeming to get into tax-related scrapes, are less compelling than Rowling’s bespectacled eponymous hero and his cohorts. A cinematic success this volume may not be turned into, but that is in no way to detract from what a superior book it is, and at times how much of a page turner it can be.

As Malcolm states in the preface “The aim of this book is to identify and explain the main principles and practice underlying personal tax planning. Thus, as might be expected, significant coverage is given to the two main capital taxes, namely, Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax.”  As a practising solicitor and tax adviser this book therefore plays to my strengths (or is it weaknesses?) – where I don’t have the answer this book does.

From the basic through to the complex, in a very straightforward, readable and (most importantly) understandable way it helps to fill in the blanks for anyone who is or is advising an executor, trustee or client wishing, legitimately, to mitigate or avoid either tax. Whether it is to be used to remind the reader of the exact rules (gone hazy since first learnt), or to educate the reader from scratch, this book delivers. Bite sized chapters set out the fundamentals of the taxes, layering on top the added complexities of the reliefs and exemptions, the anti-avoidance rules and the issues as they apply to domiciled and non-domiciled alike. Wills and trusts issues are covered in excellent detail ensuring this book is useful to both solicitor and tax advisers.

Is it possible to make tax simple or understandable? Certainly this is something that successive governments have struggled with. The ever-present examples however set out to illuminate the rules and the traps that might apply to the daily situations clients entertain us with. It also usefully recognises that the problems clients present to us aren’t always in the current as it sets out the past rules, particularly for capital gains tax.

Although a classic battle of good against evil these pages may not contain, (though many might see HMRC as “he who shall not be named”), there is much to compliment this book about. Its size is matched by its detail; the complexity of the rules it seeks to explain is bettered by the clarity of explanation. You wont read it from cover to cover, but the spine will soon be ravaged by the creasing caused by the repeated dipping in and out. I would say it should have a prominent place on your bookshelf, but mine rarely seems to find its way off the desk.

Now, where are we with Harry, Hermione and Ron……

Personal Tax Planning: Principles and Practice

Lee Young, solicitor, TEP and Chartered Tax Adviser, is head of Private Client at Frettens LLP.