Real Estate Tax – 2019

8.45 – 9.25  Welcome

(Tea, coffee and pastries)

9.25 – 9.30  Chairman’s Introduction

Michael Thomas, Pump Court Tax Chambers

9.30 – 10.30  Non UK Residents & CGT on Property – The New Regime

– Summary of rules for disposals of direct and indirect UK real estate
– Collective Investment vehicles – explaining the elections
– Tips and Traps
Richard Woolich, DLA Piper

10.30 – 11.05  JPUTs – and dismantling them

– Some history
– Typical JPUT/partnership structures
– The practicalities of unwinding JPUT structures
– Tax issues to consider: CGT, CAs, SDLT and VAT
William Watson and Edward Milliner, Slaughter and May

11.05 – 11.30 Break

(Coffee, tea and biscuits)

11.30 – 11.55  Substantial Shareholding Exemption

– Overview and relevance to real estate
– Exemption for Qualifying Institutional Investors
– Interaction with the indirect CGT charge for non-residents
William Watson and Edward Milliner, Slaughter and May

11.55 – 12.55  Structuring in the New Tax Environment

– The implications of the CIR rules on financing, whether shareholder debt is still useful, corporate restructuring and revisiting third party financing to get within PIE
– Anti-hybrid implications; especially when dealing with US check the box
– Structuring for JVs and club deals: how to ensure that exempt investors minimise tax and possible differences of opinions on making the NRCG elections
– “Private” REITs as a JV vehicle or sub-fund vehicle?
Nicola Westbrooke, EY

12.55 – 13.05  Questions from the morning session

13.05 – 14.15  Lunch

14.15 – 15.00  De-enveloping Residential Property

– Motivations: Avoiding ATED , Simplicity, Loss of Historic Privileges
– SDLT: Consideration, debt as deemed consideration and anti-avoidance risks – structuring distributions and removing debt
– Impact of Abolition of ATED-related CGT as of 6 April 2019
– Non-resident companies – the switch to corporation tax as of 6 April 2019, reporting and base costs
– Trust structures – the relevant property regime (vs. 40% death charge)
– UK resident beneficial owners – points to watch including treatment of distributions pre-liquidation vs during liquidation
Sara Maccallum, Boodle Hatfield

15.00 – 16.25  Practical VAT Update – Where are we now? (concludes after tea break)

– The Domestic Reverse Charge for Construction – What is in, what is out, and what do you need to do now?
– When is Practical Completion? – The extent of Zero Rating
– Management Charges – What does Mandatory Actually Mean?
– Fiscale Einheid X – The Fund Management Exemption
– A forward look at upcoming cases
Richard Dalton, BDO

15.40 – 16.05  Tea

16.25 – 17.25  More Hot Topics and Disputes

– Pitfalls and Opportunities with Development Transactions
– Maximising IHT business property relief
– Section 75A FA 2003 – where are we after Project Blue and Hannover Leasing? And what does this tell us about the bigger picture?
– Disputes around SDLT rates – BPRA and London Luton BPRA Fund v HMRC
– Where else are HMRC challenging?
Michael Thomas, Pump Court Tax Chambers

Conference Closes

The conference will be followed by informal drinks in the Bridge Bar.