One of the few private client lawyers who can advise on Italian as well as UK issues –and bilingually as well – Puoti is known as the go-to lawyer for HNWs with southern European interests.
She also specialises in cross-border estate planning issues, with a particular focus on all issues arising from Roman law and Common Law application. ‘It’s like having a massive puzzle and trying to make it all fit,’ she says. ‘I understand both sides of the coin so I can put together something that is solid and tax-efficient, and will withstand scrutiny from either country.’
Puoti believes that one of the real strengths of the UK tax system is that ‘there are rules,
and the rules are respected by HMRC’. However, she thinks the 45 per cent rate on income tax could be lowered: ‘The tax system needs to be fair, and now more than ever, the UK needs to encourage foreign people to settle here.’
She is hugely popular within the industry, with one peer reporting that introducing clients to her was ‘rather like watching someone join a cult’.
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Also extremely gregarious, Puoti is Italian to the core – she has 76 first cousins. ‘I am very personal with people,’ she says. ‘I am unable to have a distant working relationship with anybody… I hug and kiss most of my clients when I see them.’
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