'Cause I'm the taxman

PAUL MCCARTNEY'S SEPARATION and impending divorce from his wife Heather has inevitably (given his age) sparked off a rash of headlines based around 'when I'm 64'. Tax practitioners however should be shunning Sergeant Pepper and turning instead to Revolver for inspiration. Depending on the amount of the settlement and possibly on the attitude of HMRC the taxman may be a windfall beneficiary from the divorce. It will not quite be 'one for you nineteen for me' but the amounts may be significant — and the taxman's cut could be even more painful for those who divorce owning less valuable assets than the former Beatle. Analysing the problem for the McCartneys will therefore also illustrate the problem for the wealthy (though not quite THAT wealthy) clients of readers whose marriages unfortunately break down irretrievably.

Lonely hearts club

The problem is capital gains tax. Whilst transfers...