The Guardian has noted that the back tracking on private equity has begun in the Treasury.
Gordon Brown said on Wednesday that:
Private equity will be dealt with in the PBR. I can assure you that we will do so.
Th[e] matter will be looked at in a few days and weeks and wherever there is a loophole [...]
I was amused by this in the Guardian this morning in a discussion on the domicile rule:
Accountants have estimated that if 20% of private equity businessmen left the country if the practice ended, Britain would still be better off by £4.3bn, equivalent to more than a penny off income tax.
I admit I have yet to [...]
The Guardian has reported that:
Gordon Brown yesterday announced that he will close some of the tax loopholes enjoyed by private equity companies in the pre-budget report due to be published next month on the same day as the comprehensive spending review.
It also notes he said that:
Private equity will be dealt within the PBR. I can [...]
Richard Lambert, the head of the Confederation of British Industry spoke to the TUC today. This spirit of cooperation is the first bit of good news.
The second bit is that the FT reports that he said:
I do agree that there is a legitimate question on the non-dom side. It is important that a tax system [...]
One of the regular challenges I face is the suggestion that whatever changes to the tax rules are made the rich will never pay tax. Tim Congdon raised it continually (and annoyingly) on Hecklers last week, for example. In a way, everyone who says this reworks the now near legendary comment in tax justice circles [...]
Accountancy Age has covered a story first reported by the FT and says:
The private equity industry is facing a tough shake-up in the way it is taxed, with chancellor Alistair Darling proposing stiffer capital gains tax (CGT) rates and lengthening the taper relief period.
According to the FT, Darling is considering an increase in CGT from [...]
The FT reports this morning that:
Buy-out groups could find ways to get round a proposed US tax rise by developing new financing structures or by offsetting some of the burden by cutting returns to pension funds and other investors, a private-equity executive said on Tuesday.
It continued:
Bruce Rosenblum, chairman of the Private Equity Council and a [...]
It was interesting find an article on on our domicile rule in the International Herald & Tribune of 5 July 1997. It said:
A standard test for trainee British tax accountants is to decide whether Britain is a tax haven. According to Richard McIlwee, a tax partner with Clifford Chance in London, most are surprised to [...]
The Treasury Select Committee is to publish its interim findings on private equity tomorrow. This will not make recommendations: the committee has yet to hear all evidence, including that which I wrote for the Tax Justice Network.
But what is good news is that they are to ask for a progress report from the government on [...]
I note that the Alliance Boot private equity deal has run into problems. As the FT says:
The private equity owners of Alliance Boots and their banks have been forced to extend discussions on the debt package to fund the acquisition into next week after failing to reach agreement with investors.
The debt now looks set to [...]
