Clifford Chance

New UK taxes on offshore IP structures - The impact on traditional and digital businesses - UK Budget 2017

23 November 2017

The Government's Budget was announced by the Chancellor on 22 November 2017. It includes a series of proposals attacking offshore IP structures.

The main targets are foreign digital businesses, but all businesses that employ offshore IP structures will be affected.

The Government's long term objective is a new multilateral tax applied to social networks, marketplaces, and other businesses that generate value from user participation. However, as a short term interim measure, the UK will be introducing a unilateral extra-territorial withholding tax on offshore royalty payments to tax havens, when the payments are ultimately funded by UK sales.

This briefing summarises the new proposals, and looks at the steps business can be taking to prepare for the new taxes.

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