Real estate investment trust meaning

In this issue: Employment taxes Companies and corporation tax VAT Budgets and Finance Bills International Real estate tax Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Employment taxes Court of Appeal dismisses ‘discontinuous contract of employment’ while confirming need for causal link to carelessness for extension of assessment timeframe (Mainpay Ltd v HMRC) In Mainpay Ltd v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 1290, the Court of Appeal confirmed that extended assessment time limits apply where there is carelessness, and held that sporadic work under one contract is not continuous employment. HMRC was required to demonstrate a sufficient causal connection between taxpayer carelessness and the tax lost to justify using the longer time limits, and in this instance it satisfied that requirement. See News Analysis: Court of Appeal dismisses ‘discontinuous contract of employment’ while confirming need for causal link to carelessness for extension of assessment timeframe...

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, delivered the government’s Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 Keenly awaited and watched, this was the first Budget from a Labour administration in fourteen years, and the first ever presented by a woman Chancellor. Many headline measures for Private Clients had been trailed in one form or another, and several of the changes—such as the Capital Gains Tax reforms—were not as draconian as many had feared, proving less severe than anticipated. It was definitely a Labour Budget, unmistakably Labour in flavour, with the Chancellor honouring election pledges not to raise income tax or National Insurance for ‘working people’, and instead securing the £40bn of tax rises by lifting employers’ National Insurance, narrowing the scope of IHT agricultural and business property reliefs, increasing CGT rates, reforming the taxation of carried interest, changing the rules for non‑UK domiciled individuals, bringing inherited pensions into the IHT net, confirming VAT on private school fees, increasing the SDLT surcharge for second homes, and even a hike in...

In this issue: Individuals and income tax International real estate tax Stamp and transfer taxes Key developments VAT International energy and environment Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Individuals and income tax Regulations postpone commencement of digital reporting and record-keeping provisions New regulations confirm the previously announced delay to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for ITSA). The Finance (No 2) Act 2017, sections 60 and 61 and Schedule 14 (Digital Reporting and Record-Keeping) (Appointed Day) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/422, were made on 25 March 2024. They move the appointed day for section 60(1) to (3), section 61(1) to (5), and Schedule 14 of the Finance (No 2) Act 2017 from 6 April 2024 to 6 April 2026. See: LNB News 26/03/2024 29. Offshore payments aren't taxable services, UK court rules Law360: Two UK residents are...

Sukuk (singular form: ‘sakk’) Sukuk are Shari’a-compliant financing instruments, commonly described as Islamic certificates or bonds. For further detail, see Practice Notes: The structure and elements of a Sukuk transaction and Sukuk—investment bond arrangements and their UK direct tax treatment—What are sukuk? Where the statutory requirements are satisfied, sukuk can access the UK tax regime that applies to alternative finance investment bond (AFIB) arrangements. For guidance on those provisions, see Practice Note: Sukuk—investment bond arrangements and their UK direct tax treatment. A distinct variant is sukuk al ijara. In such structures, the bond-issuer (the legislative term for the sukuk issuer) typically holds land on trust for the certificate holders (the sukuk investors). The issuer secures a land interest through a sale and leaseback—the ijara element. For more detail, see Practice Notes: The structure and elements of a Sukuk transaction and Islamic finance standard documentation in the context of real estate finance transactions. The UK has issued sukuk al ijaras over land, most recently in March 2021. Since a sukuk...

Direct tax treatment of UK companies investing in UK land While purchasers may have grounds to hold commercial and, at times, residential property through an offshore structure, the UK limited company is still the predominant vehicle for investing in UK real estate. An important exception is privately used dwellings, for which a UK company is generally not a tax-efficient holder. This is a consequence of the April 2013 introduction of the annual tax on enveloped dwellings (ATED) and associated measures, alongside the Single higher rate of SDLT for high-value residential transactions. ATED now extends to dwellings valued above £500,000, subject to a number of reliefs. For more information, see the Practice Notes: ATED—the basics and Single higher rate of SDLT for high-value residential property transactions. This Practice Note sets out the direct tax (that is, corporation tax) position of a UK-incorporated and tax-resident company (referred to here as a UK company) investing in or dealing with UK land...

The most straightforward way to invest in property together is for the investors to hold the asset jointly. Though this is comparatively uncommon in a commercial setting, where investors tend to create a structure such as a partnership or a company to serve as the joint venture vehicle, it still represents the prevailing and most familiar form of joint investment. For many individual investors, this is the route most often taken in practice. Contractual joint ownership Contractual joint ownership can take several forms, including: where each participant holds a direct legal interest in the asset (see Practice Note: Establishing a beneficial interest (joint ownership)) where a trust—express or implied—is established over the property, so that trustees hold the property for the trust’s beneficiaries (see Practice Note: Trusts of land—property) where an implied partnership arrangement is in place (see Practice Note: Forming a general partnership and continuing obligations) This Practice Note examines each of these joint ownership routes, their direct tax...