Brown to finalise tax regime on real estate trusts

Details of how real estate investment trusts will be taxed in the UK will be
revealed by Gordon Brown in his Budget speech on 22 March, mid-tier firm BDO
Stoy Hayward has said.

Writing in the FT, Stephen Herring, tax partner at the firm, said
the chancellor is widely expected to finalise details of this regime in his
parliamentary announcement.
REITS are due to launch in the UK in January 2007

‘UK-REITs look set to become a highly successful regime and I predict that
the chancellor will set the conversion charge at a rate below 15% of deemed
revaluation gains, payable over five years, relax the proposed interest cover
test from 2.5 to 2 and instead of solely allowing companies to be listed on
primary stock exchanges, will widen this to include AIM quoted companies,’
Herring said.

Venture capital trusts is another area Herring said the chancellor would
address as this tax regime is due to end on 5 April.

‘VCTs have been phenomenally successful over the past year, raising an
estimated £600m and the chancellor is likely to feel that he has stimulated the
entrepreneurial company sector sufficiently.

‘However, the UK still needs investment to come into this key sector. I
predict that the chancellor will leave the VCT tax break at 40% for a further
year to support the growth of unquoted companies,’ he said.