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The 'super-deduction': unobtainable by design? The draft Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy Bill published on 21 June 2022 (the Bill) shows the difficulty, and danger, of using purpose tests in legislation when the Government is seeking to use tax to influence behaviour. It can have the effect of...
UK financial regulators to oversee big cloud providers HM Treasury (HMT) has unveiled plans to introduce a new framework that would provide the UK financial regulators - the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Regulation Authority (FCA) - with powers of direct...
Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy Bill Pressure on the Government to take action on the cost of living crisis led to the announcement of a new “temporary” and “targeted” tax on certain oil and gas profits arising from 26 May 2022. A draft Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy Bill (the “Bill”) to...
(Greater) goods and (community) services: is it time we rethought charity VAT? Registered charities in the UK benefit from a broad exemption from most tax, so they might be forgiven for assuming that they are also exempt from VAT - but that is not the case. To make it more confusing, the law as HMRC applies it can mean that the same...
UK promises 'light-touch, pro-growth regulatory regime' in new digital strategy On Monday, the UK Government published its long awaited digital strategy. It replaces the existing (2017) strategy and sets out plans for how the UK can “strengthen its position as a global science and tech superpower”. The UK is starting, the strategy...
On target: Court of Appeal finds Amazon did infringe Lifestyle Equities’ UK and EU trade marks The Court of Appeal has reversed the High Court’s decision in Lifestyle Equities v Amazon, finding that Amazon.com’s advertisements, offers for sale and sales of certain US branded goods to UK and EU customers did amount to use in the UK and the EU and...
EU CFC State aid decision: the death of Cadbury Schweppes? The General Court released its decision in the UK's and ITV's appeals against the Commission's decision that the UK's CFC finance company exemption constituted State aid in so far as it applied to profits attributed to UK activities. Spoiler alert, the...
Ok, I was wrong (or when tax doesn't follow form but in my view should have) A little over a year ago, I wrote a post called "The cautionary tale of Mr Bostan Khan". It was prompted by the Court of Appeal decision in Bostan Khan v HMRC and I wrote it because I thought it neatly illustrated the way that the tax consequences of...
Net Zero: can tax help guide a unified approach? It is perhaps trite to say that tax can be used as the proverbial carrot and stick alike - or simply as a revenue raiser. It also goes without saying that policy design is a tricky affair, requiring both a precise determination of the desired behaviour,...
Taxing oil and gas: a new tax and an investment incentive The introduction of the “Energy Profits Levy” announced by the UK Chancellor on 26 May 2022 to take effect from the same date would appear to reverse the trend to reduce tax rates and increase incentives for investment as the North Sea oil and gas...