Investing In The UK Through An Offshore Company To Avoid UK Tax

Capital Gains Tax Holding UK investment via an offshore company would look at first glance to be a good way of avoiding UK capital gains tax. As the company is non UK resident,and provided the assets aren't used for the purpose of a UK trade they will be exempt from UK capital gains tax (or more correctly corporation tax on the capital gain).

Note though that this tax exemption only applies if the company retains the cash until the shareholder is non UK resident or if the cash is retained overseas. Any extraction of the proceeds would be taxed to the extent that they were remitted to the UK. So whether a simple dividend is paid or if the company is liquidated and a capital distribution is paid the cash would need to be retained offshore. If you wanted to enjoy the proceeds in the UK you'd need to think about methods of remitting the proceeds with minimal UK tax implications.

A big problem with using an offshore company is in ensuring it's controlled from overseas. If it was controlled from the UK it would be UK resident and as such taxed in full on any capital gains realised. If the company owns UK assets it makes it more difficult to avoid the company being classed as UK resident.

Inheritance taxUsing an offshore company is a big advantage for inheritance tax purposes, as it converts a UK asset into an overseas asset. As non UK domiciliaries are not subject to Inheritance tax on overseas assets they can then avoid tax on the UK property owned by the offshore company. One point to note here is that it's important that the company shares pass on registration. They will then be classed as located where the share register is - which if this is outside the UK will ensure that the shares are excluded property.

Income taxA directly owned foreign holding company can at the most only achieve only a a partial avoidance of UK tax. Income tax, unlike capital gains tax is still taxed on UK source income. Therefore even if an offshore company is used, UK tax will still be charged on UK income.

However there are benefits to be obtained from using an offshore company. For example there can be a saving of higher rate tax as non resident companies are subject to the lower or basic rate of tax in respect of UK source income. Note though that you can obtain some income (eg UK bank interest) free of UK tax. This is because tax on this income is restricted to tax deducted at source if the recipient is a non resident.

SummaryAn offshore company investing in the UK can look to achieve the following tax benefits:

Avoidance of capital gains tax
Avoidance of inheritance tax
Partial avoidance of income tax
Anti avoidance rulesAside from the company residence position - which is always an issue where you have an offshore company with UK shareholders there are also the anti avoidance provisions to consider.

Note that there is also the related issue that if an individual exercises control over the company and makes it UK resident there is a risk that he may be a shadow director and any benefits provided to him (or his family) from the company would be charged to income tax.

The main anti avoidance provision that applies to income is S739. Although there is an exemption for non UK domiciliaries this does not apply to the company's UK income.

Therefore if the offshore company had UK investment income this provision would deem the income of the company to be that of the person establishing/transferring to the company originally.

Another useful point to note is that S739 applies to any foreign registered company.

When can the anti avoidance rules be avoidedOne is where the UK individual buys a company that already has the UK investments in it. Provided he doesn't inject any further assets to the company he shouldn't be within the scope of the legislation (as he's not made a transfer of assets resulting in income accruing to the company).

Secondly there is the motive defence which applies where the transfer was not for the purposes of avoiding UK tax, and was for a wholly commercial purpose. One case where this is more easily satisfied is where a non domiciliary established the company before coming to the UK.

When can the offshore non resident company be used as a tax shelter for UK investments?It can be used to avoid UK Inheritance tax It can be used to avoid UK tax on any capital gain It can be used as a partial shelter for UK income if S739 is avoided in one of the above ways.

However any extraction of the income or proceeds from the company to the UK would be subject to UK tax. Therefore ideally income/proceeds should be retained overseas.