You only think you don’t care about ERI reporting – any client who wants or needs access to offshore funds, or any thought a discretionary manager you may partner with may have of using offshore funds is affected by this issue.
Looking for proof? Data released by HMRC, and reported by the Financial Times in September, states that nearly 24,000 nudge letters were sent in 2022/2023 tax year, an increase of 31% on the previous year. So clearly HMRC is beginning to flex its newfound muscles. HMRC also claims to have recovered £526m in tax receipts from offshore initiatives since 2019.
We believe this issue needs raising up the agenda. Otherwise we risk seeing more investors being hit with unexpected investigations and eye-watering fines. We also risk the broader reputational damage to investing, and in particular offshore investing.
That’s why like it or not, the sector has a collective responsibility to ensure investors, their accountants or their tax advisers have the correct information to guarantee that returns are accurate, but frankly – as a sector we’re not doing this well enough today to protect investors.
The report is free to download thanks to the generosity of FSL.
