About
Sangna’s clients are generally very international, with the family and assets being split across various countries. Within this context, she advises on their lifetime planning, together with implementing strategies that mean assets will pass smoothly on death.
She believes in an integrated approach to planning: that it should encompass the family’s values and purpose, relevant succession laws and asset protection considerations, as well as purely tax-driven strategies.
Sangna enjoys collaborating with others – whether it is the family themselves, or with their trustees, family offices or other advisers. Whatever the situation, Sangna is determined to achieve the best and most efficient results for her clients.
She has a particular focus on US-UK estate and tax planning, having acted for many clients exposed to both tax and estate planning regimes. She is also an expert on inheritance tax treaties and contributed the chapter on domicile for inheritance tax for Clarke’s Offshore Tax Planning.
Sangna is listed as an ‘Up and Coming’ adviser in Chambers High Net Worth, a ‘Rising Star’ in the tax and trust lawyer’s category of the Spear’s 500 and is ranked as part of the ‘Ones to Watch’ list by Private Client Global Elite.
Sangna is a member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners, the International Bar Association and the Private Client Taxes committee.
Sangna is admitted to practise in England and Wales.
Experience
- Designing and implementing practical and effective succession plans for individuals, couples and families to ensure wealth is protected for future generations against the threats of tax, possible divorce, family disputes and financially immature heirs.
- Advising UK resident, non-UK domiciled individuals on their exposure to UK taxes. This includes pre-immigration tax planning, the UK remittance basis of taxation and the use of tax-efficient trusts / alternative structures.
- Advising clients on the UK tax rules relating to residential properties, related loans and holding structures.
- Advising owners and managers of successful businesses on tax efficient succession planning and, where appropriate, pre-sale structuring to maximise returns.
- Estate-planning for couples with both a US and UK element, to minimise their incidence of UK and US estate taxes and, where necessary, taking into account matrimonial property regimes.
- Advising executors and trustees of family trusts and estates to enable them to carry out their responsibilities in such a way as to meet the families’ requirements.
- Advising US-UK clients on the effective use of trusts and other entities for estate and tax planning. In this context, Sangna regularly advises on:
- the appropriate interpretation of various US entities (including revocable trusts and LLCs) for UK inheritance tax, income tax and capital gains tax purposes
- using trusts that qualify as both excluded property trusts and foreign grantor trusts to shelter assets from both US estate tax and UK inheritance tax
- the application of the US/UK double tax treaty to determine how trusts/grantors/settlors/beneficiaries should be taxed in each jurisdiction
- using the UK “protected settlement” regime to enable UK and US taxes to be matched annually, without the need to bring trusts assets into the UK tax regime; and
- the various compliance regimes that affect trusts including FATCA, the CRS and the UK trust register.
