Review of the UK funds regime

At Budget 2020, the government announced that it would carry out a review of the UK funds regime, covering tax and relevant areas of regulation. The review started with a consultation on the tax treatment of asset-holding companies in alternative fund structures, to which the government responded in December 2020, and also published a consultation (the second consultation) into some particular aspects relevant to asset-holding companies.

In January 2021, HMT published Review of the UK funds regime: a call for input - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This is intended to set out the scope and objectives of the review, and invites stakeholders to provide views on which reforms should be taken forward and how these should be prioritised.

This is a broad review, of which taxation is only a part. Specifically, Chapter 2 of the call for input considers the UK’s approach to funds taxation and asks about the scope of change, noting the current challenges and considering more fundamental changes, including tax-exempt funds.

We would welcome any comments and suggestions for any response/input that the CIOT should be making into this review. These can be general comments about the UK funds regime and/or suggested responses to all or any of the questions posed in the call or input (there are 10 questions posed in Chapter 2 about UK funds taxation). As noted (on page 7, in question 1) this call for input is necessarily wide-ranging and it does provide the CIOT with an opportunity to feed into the policy development in this area – note question 1 asks about the top 3 priority proposals.

Please can you send any comments to [email protected] by 1 April 2021.