Big Six firms set spring deadline for Jersey LLP
Ernst & Young has set a deadline of April next year for its final decision on adopting limited liability partnership status in Jersey.
Price Waterhouse, the other Big Six firm interested in offshore LLPs, also confirmed its commitment to offshore registration, adding that a decision will be taken in ‘the spring’. But both firms, which helped draft the island’s LLP legislation, admitted that the prospect of UK reform has made the decision harder.
Jersey’s new law passed its final UK hurdle last week when it won Privy Council approval. PW and E&Y now await clarification of the future tax treatment of Jersey LLPs by the Inland Revenue, although they are also keen to see how the Government’s promise of a White Paper on LLP reform for consultation before Easter develops.
PW’s senior partner Ian Brindle and managing partner John Barnsley failed to glean any further details on the Government’s position at a recent lunch meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine.
Ernst & Young’s senior partner Nick Land said: ‘Jersey LLP is still the route that we expect to go down.’
But PW’s director of operations Michael Bishopp added: ‘If it comes to the final decision and UK legislation is known, with an introduction date, it would become a rather complicated decision.’
Nick Land said this week he had no plans to invite another accountancy firm to audit E&Y’s books. But, he added, if Government required this as part of an LLP deal, he would gladly comply.
