Over 200 financial services experts packed out the Sanderson Suite of the Claremont Hotel on the morning of Wednesday 17 December in order to be appraised of substantial changes in the local and international tax environment. The Seminar, hosted by leading tax and advisory firm KPMG, covered a series of changes in property tax, VAT, and UK and international developments.
The sessions were introduced by Greg Jones, Director, Tax, who then went on to cover the key points of the UK Autumn Statement. This included changes to Remittance Basis Charges and the introduction of capital gains tax for non-resident disposals of UK residential property. He also expanded on the ongoing efforts by HMRC to tackle alleged offshore tax evasion. Greg commented: “Many of the tax changes that were discussed today will be considered as onerous and even, in cases, counterproductive by many in the audience. Regardless, Manx businesses will need to keep up, particularly the many that rely on the management of wealthy individuals’ assets, which are coming under increasing scrutiny.”
Greg then welcomed Harley Richards, Manager, to the lectern, to discuss changes in employment taxes. The key point of his presentation was an explanation of the Accelerated Payments Notice (APN) regime coming into effect in the New Year, which may help HMRC clamp down on perceived tax abuses related to the use of contractors. He explained: “These notices effectively allow HMRC to raise a payment notice when they believe they have suffered a tax loss. The troubling part of this regime, however, is that there is little to no room for appealing such a bill, and they anticipate they will be issuing around 7,500 a month.”
Harley was followed by Paul Cawley, Manager. He outlined the way in which changes to VAT will affect Isle of Man businesses: “The VAT changes due on the first of January are the last element of the EU’s 2008 tax harmonisation package to come into effect in the UK. Despite that history, many Manx businesses will be unprepared, because they change the rules regarding place of supply substantially. This will particularly affect the Island’s eGaming and telecoms suppliers.”
Robert Rotherham, Senior Manager, was the next to contribute, outlining international progress towards implementation of the OECD’s 15 point action plan on the issue of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Robert commented: “The BEPS report was released in September, motivated largely by the furore over the tax bills of giants such as Google and Starbucks that dominated media headlines for many months. Isle of Man based sections of large international groups could be affected by the changes in this area, so it is important we stay on top of them.”
The final speaker of the day was David Parsons, Director, who provided an update on developments in the automatic exchange of tax information between jurisdictions. Focussing primarily on OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), but also touching on FATCA, he noted that: “Whilst most financial services businesses on the Island are getting fully to grips with FATCA, they now need to prepare themselves for the implementation of CRS, which will be equally onerous. However, the release on 15 December of the updated Isle of Man FATCA Guidance Notes does at least provide some welcome clarification on a number of points.”
KPMG runs bi-annual tax updates to coincide with the UK’s budget and autumn statement.
Photo - KPMG tax team pictured left to right Rob Rotherham, Greg Jones, Paul Cawley, Harley Richards and David Parsons.
