FREE: Taxpayers struggling to account for UK bank levy
International Tax Review is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

FREE: Taxpayers struggling to account for UK bank levy

UK taxpayers are experiencing a number of headaches when it comes to complying with the new bank levy, says a taxpayer at a large multinational bank.

Speaking to International Tax Review, the taxpayer, who wished to remain anonymous, flagged up the problem banks were experiencing when accounting for the levy. The main issue is that the levy applies to the global consolidated balance sheets of British banking groups and building societies, while not all the necessary information is held in the UK. This has required a lot of coordination between the bank’s branches and subsidiaries.

Another problem the taxpayer identified is that they were facing double taxation with the German bank levy.

The German levy, like the UK's, is based on liabilities, but Germany's is payable into a fund and is only levied at an entity level, excluding German branches of foreign banks. The UK's levy, by contrast, includes all banks which operate in the UK including their branches and subsidiaries based in Germany.

"Double taxation will result from the overlap of domestic measures whose scope of application has not been concerted," says Roger Kaiser, senior tax and accounting adviser at the European Banking Federation.

The taxpayer was hopeful, however, that an agreement between the UK and Germany will be reached soon to prevent them being taxed twice on the same assets and liabilities.

more across site & bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Despite the relief, Brazil’s government has also presented a bill which seeks to re-impose a tax burden on companies’ payroll, one local tax specialist told ITR
Jeremy Brown arrives at the firm after a near 16-year career with Deloitte
PwC could elect a woman into the senior leadership position for the first time; in other news, KPMG Australia has extended its CEO’s term
The Senate report into PwC’s scandal is titled ‘The cover up worsens the crime’
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
The firm’s tax business generated a quarter of HLB’s overall revenues in 2023
While successful pillar two implementation will require collaboration across all units, a combination of internal and external tax advice is at the centre of the effort
Binance has also been accused of manipulating foreign exchange rates via currency speculation and rate-fixing
Six individuals should have raised questions over information they received but did not breach professional standards, according to the firm
The partnership of KPMG UK has installed Holt for a second term as CEO and senior partner; in other news, a Baker McKenzie partner has sued the IRS
Gift this article