Merlin Trust - Update October 2020

I am delighted to inform you that the process of remitting final payments to the Merlin beneficiaries has begun. Beneficiaries are bundled into key groups which are being dealt with in order under the terms of the Trust Deed, and while the Best Admin Services team is carrying out much of the actual payment processing on behalf of the professional Trustees, each payment has to be checked and approved individually by the professional Trustees.

There are almost 250 separate payments that need to be individually checked and then keyed in for an international banking payment, so you will appreciate that each payment takes about 30 minutes even if everything runs smoothly. Therefore, it is reasonable to be confident that you will have received your final remittance and be advised of the same before the end of October at the latest. I would ask you not to slow the admin team down by contacting them regularly to check on your personal payment prematurely. A further communication will be sent when all payments have been remitted, and if you have not received yours when that happens then, of course, please do get in touch.

If you have yet to correctly complete your Anti-Money Laundering documentation (and about 40% of beneficiaries fall into this category) then please progress this urgently. If it is not completed, then your payment will be held within the Trust until it is completed correctly. For those of you in the UK, the Admin team do have the details of an IFA who is prepared to visit you and help you complete the paperwork without charge. Please be aware that the cost of holding funds past the end of October will be deducted from remaining balances, so to delay the return of AML documentation past this date risks both a delay to you receiving your funds and also a reduction in the amount you will receive. So please act as quickly as possible.

To set expectations regarding the amount you will receive, the gross payment for each share held is £1,562.16. The Spanish Tax authorities have required us to deduct and pay capital gains tax of £212.14 from this. Therefore, you will receive £1,350.02 in cash per unit. You will also receive confirmation of the payment of the tax bill in Spain. As there is a double-tax treaty in place with Spain for UK citizens, you will be able to take that into account in your own personal tax calculations depending on your own circumstances. It is the case that different people invested at different times and at different rates, so it is not possible to do a gross return calculation here, and as we do not know the personal tax position of each investor, we don’t know how this will affect each individual. You will need to refer to your own financial and tax advisors for these calculations.

Thank you again for your patience.