Tax and the City briefing for February 2016

In a helpful concession, HMRC will not seek to apply the withholding tax rules for interest to peer-to-peer lending, pending changes to the statutory rules to come later. A frozen GAAP approach saves the UK tax regime from major changes, at least for now, in light of the new accounting standard for leases. As redrawing the UK’s relationship with the EU continues apace, the UK has little to say so far on the EU draft anti-tax avoidance directive; however, amongst other things, it poses some difficult questions for the territorial approach in the UK to the taxation of foreign profits.