Tax and the City review for October 2023

Draft legislation to enact the EU-derived exemption from stamp taxes on the issuance and transfer of securities to a clearance service or depositary receipt issuer in certain circumstances is less generous than the current exemption. The FTT’s decision in Wilkinson shows that the delineation of the scheme or arrangement and how the relevant exchange relates to it is crucial to the application of the purpose test in the capital gains tax reorganisation rules. The UT in Scottish Power looks at the payments (made following regulatory breaches) as a whole and concludes that the FTT was wrong to single out part of the package as compensatory, all of it was punitive and therefore non-deductible. HMRC launches a pilot ‘accelerated routes process’ for eligible transfer pricing and diverted profits tax cases over 36 months old which is open for applications until 1 December 2023.