RETIREMENT PLANS WRITTEN UNDER TRUST OR CONTRACT - Recent action has been taken in various civil law countries legislating directly against, what are seen as, tax avoidance schemes. As a result of this a lot of standard trust based plans, such as pensions, have been caught. For example, new legislation in France has created highly complex wealth and inheritance taxation rules and the exemptions available for pension trusts are limited, while recent legislation in Spain has resulted in “look through” provisions for trusts.

This month's Market Insight Newsletter is centred upon the UK Budget, and in particular the changes to be adopted to the taxation of Dividends starting in 2016.

We would also like to take this opportunity to restate our investment service offered by Rathbones of Mayfair, London. Upon introducing this service to Portugal at the start of 2015, we have been overwhelmed with the demand. 

People thinking of setting up or taking over a business abroad are being urged to do their research before taking the plunge.

Overseas property and finance expert Simon Conn has been arranging foreign mortgages for more than 30 years. He says the one area of the industry he gets increasingly frustrated about is clients who wish to set up or take over an existing business abroad, with no thought or plan of how this is going to be achieved.

As part of their pre-election campaign, the Conservative Party had promised to effectively raise the threshold for inheritance tax from £650,000 to £1 million for a married couple, where a family home is involved.

This was not included in the Queen’s Speech on 27th May, but now the Treasury Minister, David Gauke, has confirmed to parliament that it will go ahead.

In this issue, we cover two major important issues that will affect the majority.

The first main issue is the forthcoming UK referendum on the European Union, known by many as the potential "BREXIT", and also, the new EU legislation on Inheritance Succession Rules, being implemented on 17th August this year, which will affect all of us.

Switzerland has agreed to automatically exchange information with the EU, bringing an end to banking secrecy.

A new tax transparency agreement was signed on 27th May 2015 by Jacques de Watteveille, the Swiss Secretary for International Finance Matters, EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Latvian Finance Minister Janis Reirs (on behalf of the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council).

When the Chancellor delivered his autumn budget statement last year, it was confirmed that Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) would be treated the same as pensions would be dealt with in future under the pending UK “pension freedom” rules. However, overseas pension schemes holding UK tax-relieved savings outside the European Union are now, in fact, prevented from offering “pension freedom” to members after 6th April. This U-turn has meant that owners of a QROPS sited in popular jurisdictions such as Guernsey, the Isle of Man and New Zealand have found themselves in a ‘ring-fenced’ situation and these QROPS must continue to provide an “income for life” on 70% of the subject pension fund.

In this edition of the Private Fund Management Market Insight we cover the following issues:

• The UK enters deflation - the first time s - page 1.
• Economic & Market Overview - page 2.
• The UK election and its consequences - page 3.
• Investment - looking for income - page 3.
• Our InvestClever Portfolio Stats - page 4.

CLICK HERE to read.

If there is any aspect within this month's Market Insight that you would like further information on, or you would like to have any of our previous issues of Market Insight, please feel free to contact us.