On 9 September the Treasury Exchequer Secretary David Gauke MP announced that the government had decided not to proceed with the consultation on HMRC’s 1 August Technical Note and the draft legislation contained therein regarding a proposed approach to combating tax avoidance arrangements exploiting the provisions of tax treaties.
This announcement was most welcome as the proposals as drafted would have led to considerable uncertainty regarding whether treaty benefits would have been available in many situations and in consequence would have been very likely to have led to a probably material reduction in investment into and from the UK.
The proposed legislation would broadly have allowed HMRC to deny treaty benefits...
