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The Budget 2014 For Corporate Lawyers
The Budget 2014 For Corporate Lawyers
This article was first published on LexisPSL Corporate on 19 March 2014. Click here for a free 24h trial of LexisPSL.
The other aspect of the peace dividend and re-structuring of our corporate tax regime on to a territorial basis has, of course, been some welcome returns to the UK and also new business arrivals (particularly from the US). It is good to see the government's efforts to be open and responsive to business producing benefits to our economy in this way. A possible blemish on this record, however, might be the proposed limitation on bareboat charter payments in the oil services industry. This seems to have started either as an attack on earnings stripping (or avoidance) or as a contribution expected from those engaged in the North Sea (even though the target was not the producers themselves who enjoy the direct profits from oil) but has now lost its way a little so that the philosophy or justification behind or for the limitation is less easy to discern. Many fear that it is just an extra tax on service suppliers to the North Sea and that its impact will be to affect investment in the very mobile oil services sector. We shall see--but the fact that the government is saying it will review after a year suggests that they have some inner doubts too. Otherwise, this is a 'steady as she goes' budget for UK business with some useful help given to investment and infrastructure. Edward Craft, partner at Wedlake Bell: One of the main points that jumps out to me is the point about stamp duty. 'From midnight tonight anyone purchasing residential property worth over half a million pounds through a corporate envelope will be required to pay 15% stamp duty'--but what does this mean? Interestingly, he said 'anyone purchasing residential property though a corporate envelope' because clearly, on this statement, some company acquisitions of residential property will not be caught because there is no way a pass through can be imputed to an individual.