UBM joins tax exodus to Ireland
FTSE-250 company UBM has joined the exodus to Ireland in search of better tax regime
United Business
Media is the latest company to join a growing exodus of UK companies in
search of a better tax regime.
The publishing and events group, which generates 85% of its earnings
overseas, announced the move today, releasing details of a new holding company,
incorporated in Jersey, tax resident in Ireland and listed in the UK.
The company said: ‘The board of UBM now believes that the long term interests
of UBM and its Shareholders are best served by the adoption of an international
holding company corporate structure that domiciles UBM’s parent company in the
Republic of Ireland, which has a less complex system of taxation,’ the company
said.
‘In contrast, the UK tax system imposes tax on all companies in a worldwide
group, and consequently UBM has had to manage the interaction between the UK tax
system and the tax systems of the multiple countries in which UBM operates. This
has given rise to both significant compliance costs and risks of inadvertent tax
charges arising,’ it added.
The UK is planning to hike taxes on foreign subsidiaries prompting several
companies to leave the UK.
The move is part of a growing number of British companies which are looking
to escape the relative high domestic tax rates and follows the board of
Shire, Britain’s
third-biggest pharmaceutical company, which is planning to move its parent
company to Ireland to help protect the group’s tax position.
Further reading
Read UBM’s announcement
GSK: tax rules must be ‘favourable’