The global economy has been expanding these last decades with increased trade and investment. This boosts mobility among high-net-worth individuals and their families; they open companies abroad and invest in foreign assets. International tax planning is becoming increasingly popular between both large corporations and small and medium-sized businesses, and even individuals.
Imperial & Legal experts provide professional advice on tax and investment matters in the UK and worldwide.
If you are a resident in more than one country and have an overseas business, our team will analyse your situation and foreign residence to identify your tax liabilities. We offer the following support:
We serve both international business owners and high-net-worth individuals wishing to reduce their tax burden and preserve their capital.
If you are not sure whether you are a UK tax resident or not, use a special UK Tax Residence Test on our website to determine your tax status.
Such terms as tax minimisation, tax optimisation and tax planning are commonly used to describe ways of reducing tax. Contrary to popular opinion, the terms are not interchangeable although they have a lot in common.
Both tax minimisation, optimisation and planning are legal ways of reducing tax burden that have nothing to do with tax evasion and avoidance.
Tax minimisation is a legal method of reducing tax payments in compliance with current national regulations and even case law. For example, a company may legally reduce its taxable income. In some countries, tax rebates are also a legal way to minimise taxes, if individuals pay for expensive medical treatment or tuition fees.
It is possible to reduce the tax burden legally not only for companies and wealthy entrepreneurs but for individuals too if they know current legislation or consult a qualified advisor. In practice, tax deductions are accessible to almost every taxpayer, but only a few of them take advantage of the opportunity.
Tax optimisation includes a more flexible approach to reducing the tax burden, based not only on current tax legislation but also on other equally effective measures.
For example, deferred tax payments do not mean that you will pay less in the end, but for some entrepreneurs, it is beneficial because they have more capital to play with and subsequently earn more.
Another tool for tax optimisation is corporate taxation which is used to redistribute tax burden or even cut down certain payments to the treasury.
Tax planning, and especially international tax planning, is a set of measures aimed at reducing the taxes of an entrepreneur or a company. International tax planning includes taking advantage of nuances in legislation, government programs of different countries and competent financial management.
Imperial & Legal’s specialists reiterate that tax planning is a legal and transparent way to reduce taxes because all the necessary steps are carried out in advance, considering immigration, corporate, tax laws and intergovernmental agreements. By contrast, tax avoidance is often reactive, i.e. first a difficult tax situation occurs and then a tax resident uses illegal tools to solve it.
Some governments and even intergovernmental associations frown upon illegal ways of tax reduction, especially when offshore zones are used for optimisation. Information requirements have become tighter, tax returns are scrutinised more thoroughly and penalties for tax law violations are severe.
Even long-established tax havens are under pressure from outside and are losing ground: they start to tighten requirements for foreign investors and international company registration rules, disclosing lists of applicants for passport programs and sharing confidential information with other countries.
Faced with these challenges, it is difficult to overestimate the benefits of consulting international tax planning specialists. Imperial & Legal can provide you with the most updated information and qualified tax planning assistance.
According to our advisors, everyone contacting our company for legal assistance and consultation is always a unique case calling for a tailor-made solution. Here is an example of our tax specialists’ approach.
Tax planning for an elderly entrepreneur moving to the UK
Case: A recently retired wealthy entrepreneur planning to move to the UK got in touch with Imperial & Legal. He wanted to be closer to his friends who settled in the early 2000s. Our client and his friends even had a UK-based joint business bringing a small but stable income.
The entrepreneur knew some nuances of UK tax law and therefore, wanted to avoid unnecessary costs for him and his future heirs by consulting our competent advisors.
Solution: According to UK laws, all money received before a person becomes a tax resident is clean capital and is not taxed. Therefore, a plan was developed to restructure all assets to provide our client with the necessary stable income in the UK and minimise taxation of all income sources. In addition, the client’s assets were restructured to minimise potential inheritance tax liabilities.
Our advisors develop unique investment strategies that will preserve and increase your assets; they do it by:
Our clients trust our experts because we always focus on clients’ and their family’s needs, but at the same time, we set realistic goals and assess financial limitations and possible tax liabilities for investors.
Imperial & Legal’s specialists give three main aspects:
The most obvious example of an international treaty is registering a company offshore, where there are no taxes on foreign profits. You can minimise tax burden via numerous double taxation treaties, whereby the same income does not get taxed twice. The main thing is to make sure that a relevant treaty has been signed between your country of residence and the tax haven where your company is registered.
However, a fight against “aggressive tax planning”, anti-offshore laws adopted by countries, and widespread information exchange complicate the use of offshores.
Therefore, instead of offshores, companies are often registered in countries with the following conditions for tax optimisation:
If your assets are in a foreign country with an independent judiciary and a high level of political and economic stability, your capital will be safer. Your business is less at risk of incurring losses as a result of activities of government authorities, criminal structures, unscrupulous competitors, raiders and other parties interested in taking over your company.
Unlike offshore and low- or territorial taxation countries, jurisdictions with standard taxation attract businessmen thanks to their impeccable reputation and traditional transparency of many business processes.
Prestige, a high level of trust and operational transparency are the main factors that drive people to register a company in the UK. However, there are ways to reduce the tax burden even in countries with high tax rates:
We have been helping clients plan their estate, investment and optimise taxes worldwide. Get in touch with us to discuss your wealth plan.
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