Tax and the City briefing for January 2019

The Upper Tribunal in Ball UK Holdings confirms that what generally accepted accounting practice (GAAP) is or whether something is in accordance with GAAP, are questions of fact, not law. HMRC loses again in Smith & Nephew as the Upper Tribunal confirms the FTT’s decision that the accounts were GAAP compliant, the exchange losses were losses within the meaning of the legislation and did “fairly represent” losses. The US Treasury and IRS propose regulations which eliminate FATCA withholding on gross proceeds and defer withholding on “foreign passthru payments”. The fourth annual report on the operation of the Code of Practice on Taxation for Banks published in December, reveals that the banks that have adopted the Code have been behaving themselves and that HMRC intends to include a commitment in the guidance to deal with Code approaches within 28 days.

This article was first published in the 18 January 2019 edition of Tax Journal.

tax-and-the-city-briefing-january-2019.pdf