The case of D Austin v G Mitchell and another [2020] EWHC 3486 (Ch) (14 August 2020) which has recently been published although it was heard last year is not a tax case but will be of interest to private client practitioners because of the discussion of domicile. The context is an application to the court for a declaration that a person has died. In this case the person had not been seen since 1989 and the court eventually made the declaration. But the court only had the authority to do this if the individual involved was domiciled in England and Wales on the last day he was known to be alive. Here the individual had been born in Canada and one of his parents was of Hungarian origin. The discussion of domicile in paras 13–19 breaks no new ground but it is...
