The following Personal Tax guidance note by Tolley provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:
Offshore funds are investments such as foreign unit trusts and open ended investment companies (OEICs).
This note introduces this topic, and aims to help you understand whether the taxpayer’s investment is within the special offshore funds tax regime and, if so, how it will be taxed. In particular, it explains the difference between ‘reporting’ and ‘non-reporting’ funds. It considers the tax position of the UK resident individual investor.
The taxation of offshore funds is very complex. This guidance note, and the linked notes on opaque funds, transparent funds, and changes in fund status, are only an outline of the topic, and you may need specialist advice. In particular, this suite of guidance notes does not cover:
For further reading, see Simon’s Taxes Division B5.7 (subscription sensitive).
Many investment funds, such as unit trusts, are based in the UK. These UK resident investment funds pay corporation tax on the income arising in the fund at the rate equivalent to the basic rate of income tax, on an annual basis.
Offshore funds are, by definition, not subject to UK tax. Absent specific legislation, it would be possible to roll-up undistributed income in an offshore fund, so that no tax was paid until the investor sold his interest in the fund. At that point he would realise a chargeable gain, taxed at a lower rate.
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