Summer Budget: The impact on multinationals

Falling after the pre-election hoopla of diverted profits tax and before the expected endorsement of a raft of BEPS-driven measures in Budget 2016 this Budget could easily have been a damp squib for multinationals. In fact however the chancellor’s self-described ‘big Budget’ contained more than enough to keep life interesting for multinational groups focused on four main areas.

 

First rate and payment changes. For most groups the headline news was the fall in the headline rate to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020. This is obviously welcome for corporate taxpayers – though it will further fuel the rather ill-informed argument in the US and elsewhere that the UK is becoming a ‘tax haven’. The rate benefit will be...