Treasury to reveal Google tax details this week
Draft Finance Act 2015 to be released on Wednesday 10 December
THE TREASURY is to reveal this week the details behind many of the proposals put forward in the Autumn Statement, including the so-called Google tax aimed at preventing multinationals from shifting UK profits overseas.
The draft 2015 Finance Act is to be published on Wednesday with accompanying guidance on how the new rules will operate.
The Diverted Profits Tax will apply a 25% levy to profits generated in the UK by multinational businesses. International accountancy network RSM raised concerns over what it described as a “unilateral” move by the chancellor in announcing the levy.
“…It will be very difficult for HMRC to introduce a measure which rewrites the international tax law and the UK’s interaction with its extensive treaty network,” said Jim Meakin, head of tax at RSM’s UK member firm Baker Tilly.
In its report The Evolution of Tax, the network added nearly three quarters (72%) of tax advisers across 54 nations anticipate that corporate tax rates in their own countries would remain broadly the same over the next three years.
Details on measures against the use of umbrella companies to disguise income; further penalties for serial avoiders; a new taskforce will be established to strengthen HMRC’s hand in administering, enforcing and policing DOTAS; and a consultation on addressing hybrid mismatch arrangements – a feature of tax-structured cross-border financing – will all be fleshed out in the draft document.