Sector focus: Banks

The tax landscape

Banks are a political target at the moment and there is no doubt that the UK banking sector is currently facing unprecedented challenges on the tax front as governments both foreign and domestic target financial institutions with a raft of new taxes and regulations.

Whether these are designed to build a financial buffer against future crises or to ensure that banks pay a fair amount of tax as part of a vote-winning political strategy they have caused difficulties in implementation and interpretation.

The constant succession of significant changes means many tax teams are reactive ...  rather than developing long-term tax strategy

Some of the issues discussed in this article are specific to banks and the financial sector – bank levy the banking code of practice financial transaction...