Selden & Marsh advises principals and their families on where income arises, where it is received, and which of those two facts an authority is entitled to assess. Above 100,000,000 EUR the work is a standing family office instruction, priced separately. Below the threshold described in the next section, a family is generally better served elsewhere; we say so at the first meeting, not the last.
The mandate
Tax is charged by reference to three things: the residence of the person, the source of the income, and the character of the vehicle through which the income passes. Each is a question of fact, each is settled by published rules, and each can be arranged in advance. That is the whole of the work, and the only variable that matters is when it is done.
We do not conceal income. Concealment is what a family resorts to when the planning was not done in time, and it is the most expensive thing that can be done with money. Every structure we build is incorporated, registered, filed, reported under the common reporting standard, and correct on its face. The distinction that decides an outcome is not between the disclosed and the undisclosed. It is between a structure that existed before the income arose and one assembled afterwards.
Residence and domicile
Sixteen of the thirty-one jurisdictions in which we act determine residence by a day count. The tests are arithmetic and the thresholds are published, which makes a calendar a legal instrument. We prepare the calendar, the evidence of presence, and the year of departure filing.
Settled structures
Discretionary and excluded property trusts, private trust companies, reserved powers arrangements. The settlement removes the asset from the settlor's estate as a matter of law and leaves the family's access to it a matter of trustee discretion.
Holding chains
Multi-tier holding companies placed to attract participation exemption on dividends and on gains, financed so that deductible interest arises where the rate is high and the receipt where it is low. Hybrid mismatch rules are tested at design stage, not at filing.
Treaty position
More than 3,000 bilateral double taxation treaties are in force and they differ. We select the route on which withholding is lowest and substance is genuine, and we build the substance first, so that the principal purpose test is satisfied on the facts rather than argued after the event.
Engagements and fee basis
| Engagement | Delivery | Fee basis | Worked example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residence and domicile review | 6 weeks | Fixed | 45,000 EUR |
| Structure design and implementation | 5 months | 180,000 EUR plus 1.5 per cent of assets settled | 780,000 EUR on a 40,000,000 EUR settlement |
| Trustee and holding administration | Continuing | 9,500 EUR per vehicle per month | 114,000 EUR per vehicle per annum |
| Treaty and mismatch opinion | 3 weeks | Per opinion | 28,000 EUR |
| Standing counsel | Annual | 22,000 EUR per quarter | 88,000 EUR per annum |
A representative first year combines the review, one implementation and two administered vehicles: 45,000 EUR, 780,000 EUR and 228,000 EUR, or 1,053,000 EUR in total. Fees are quoted in advance and do not vary with the amount saved. We do not charge on a contingent basis: a fee that rises with the saving is an invitation to build the aggressive version, and we decline that invitation whether or not the client extends it.
What the arithmetic is worth
- A move from a 39 per cent headline rate to a 15 per cent flat regime, on relevant income of 12,000,000 EUR, is 2,880,000 EUR per annum.
- A substitute regime in one southern European jurisdiction charges 200,000 EUR per annum in place of tax on all foreign income. On foreign income of 9,000,000 EUR otherwise taxed at 43 per cent, the substitution is worth 3,670,000 EUR per annum, and the charge is fixed however large the income becomes.
- A participation exemption applied to a 60,000,000 EUR disposal, where the gain would otherwise be taxed at 26 per cent, removes 15,600,000 EUR from charge.
- Structures designed by this firm hold 6,400,000,000 EUR across 214 client families, an average of 29,900,000 EUR per family.
- On mandates completed in the four years to 2025 the blended effective rate on relevant income fell from 31.4 per cent to 8.9 per cent. That is 22.5 percentage points, and 71.7 per cent of the rate at which we found it.
How a mandate runs
- Instruction. Taken by a partner. We ask for the balance sheet, the citizenships, the passport pages covering the last three years, and any liquidity event expected. We do not ask what the client would prefer the answer to be.
- Position paper. Ten to fifteen pages setting out where the client is resident today, on what basis, and what a competent authority would conclude on the same facts. Delivered in six weeks. One instruction in five ends at this stage.
- Design. Two or three structures, each costed, each accompanied by the disclosure it will generate and the year in which that disclosure will first be examined.
- Implementation. Incorporations, settlements, trustee appointments, banking, substance. Five months is normal. Substance means premises, resident directors, and board minutes made in the place they say they were made. It is the line clients most often ask to economise on and the line on which structures are most often lost.
- Filing. The first full year of returns in every jurisdiction the structure touches, prepared by us and signed by the client.
- Review. Annual. Legislation moves, and a structure correct in the year it was built becomes a liability in the year the rule changes. Median client tenure is 11 years.
References
Client identity is not disclosed. The following are described at sector level, with permission.
A Nordic industrial family, third generation. Assets in five jurisdictions and eleven adult beneficiaries. A single holding chain replaced nineteen direct shareholdings. Dividend withholding across the group fell from 21 per cent to 4 per cent on distributions of 34,000,000 EUR per annum, which is 5,780,000 EUR retained. The operating businesses, the boards and the employment contracts were unchanged.
A founder, single asset, software. Trust settled 22 months before heads of terms were signed. The gain on disposal arose in the trust. Had the settlement followed the negotiation it would not have, and no later step would have cured it. Twenty-two months is not caution. It is the shortest interval on which we are willing to advise.
A family leaving a high-rate jurisdiction. The departure was planned across two tax years. Presence in the departing jurisdiction was held to 71 days in the year of departure and 34 days in the year following, against thresholds of 91 and 46. Both figures are evidenced by carrier records, card settlements and a contemporaneous calendar.
Terms of business
Fees are payable on delivery, whether or not the client implements. Mandates are exclusive for their duration and for six months following. Files opened in 2025: 38. Declined in the same period: 61.
Sixty-one declined files in a year of thirty-eight opened is not a marketing statistic. It is the base rate at which a family arrives after the position that mattered has already been taken by someone else's client. We are retained, in the ordinary case, to avoid finding out which position that was.
We decline in three circumstances.
- Where the transaction has been signed. Structuring after signature is not structuring.
- Where an enquiry, audit or investigation is open. At that point the matter is litigation, and belongs to counsel.
- Where the object is concealment rather than location. We arrange where things are. We do not arrange whether they can be seen.
Enquiries
Initial enquiries are taken by a partner. Please state the jurisdictions in which you are currently resident and taxed, the approximate composition of relevant assets, and any event expected within the next 24 months. A first response is issued within two working days.