William Watson welcomes HMRC’s latest attempt to resolve the tax issues arising where debt is subject to non-standard terms as to the payment of the principal and/or interest, but says there is further work to do.
I have contributed a number of pieces to Tax Journal in the past 18 months on the subject of debt issued as regulatory capital by banks and insurers. The question that prompted the first article ‘Is a perpetual note debt for tax purposes?’ was the status of ‘perpetual’ debt. For a year or more HMRC clung to the view that some or all perpetuals did not constitute debt at all so fell outside the loan relationships regime.
Happily the consultation on loan relationships and derivatives published by HMRC...
