The government has heeded representations about the likely negative impact for the UK’s competitiveness and for multinational groups of proposals to change the tax treatment of quoted eurobonds and short interest, which will not now be introduced, James Smith writes.
The proposal in a consultative document published in March this year to restrict the long-standing exemption from UK withholding tax on interest paid on a quoted eurobond where the eurobond was held by a foreign affiliate of the bond issuer and listed on an exchange where there was no substantial or regular trading on the eurobond caused alarm for many multinational groups. Groups have for many years used quoted eurobonds for their financing arrangements to enable the flow of funds between group members in a way that...
