On 4 February 2026, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/102) (the Regulations) were published. The Regulations will commence on 25 October 2027, although provisions enabling the FCA to issue directions, guidance and rules will come into force sooner.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) has updated its framework for the collection and maintenance of Beneficial Ownership (BO) information to align with international standards against money laundering and financial crime. These revised guidelines, issued under the BVI Business Companies and Limited Partnerships (Beneficial Ownership) Regulations, 2024, introduce significant obligations for legal entities and their owners.

For the past 15 years, global tax transparency has been a central theme of the OECD’s work, and it has been successful. Bank secrecy has effectively ended, and the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts (via the Common Reporting Standard) has become the norm. However, one major asset class has remained a blind spot for tax authorities: cross-border real estate.

Twice a year HMRC publishes its Trusts and Estates Newsletter. The latest update from HMRC (published on 4.2.2026)  provides critical guidance for taxpayers regarding significant reforms to inheritance tax, administrative changes for bereavement services, and shifting tax rates for trusts and estates. 

In Linear v FOS the Court of Appeal upheld the Financial Ombudsman’s finding that Linear had wrongly permitted its client (C), who was not a professional investor and who did not meet the qualitative and quantitative criteria to become an elective professional client, to invest in a trading strategy designed for professional investors. The Court also upheld the Ombudsman’s decision to compensate C by reference to the FTSE private investors income total return index, rather than to a higher risk professional index.

Dilapidations are damages awarded to a landlord where a tenant has failed to comply with its obligations to keep premises in the state of repair required by the covenants (a term used to connote a solemn agreement) in the lease.  This issue commonly crops at the end of a lease, when the property reverts back to the landlord who is then faced - or claims to be faced - with the costs of carrying out the outstanding repairs. 

Relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) is available to property developers when property is acquired or held exclusively for the purposes of development. In Investment and Securities Trust Limited v The Commissioners for HMRC [2025] UKUT 331 (TCC) (IST v HMRC) the Upper Tribunal considered that exclusive purpose relief where an option to purchase a property was acquired from a family member, not only to develop the property, but also to provide a pool of funds to that family member

In 2015 and 2016 the EU entered into protocols with Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland to provide for the automatic exchange of information in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).