Taxation of Intellectual Property in the UK - Principles, Pitfalls & Best Practice

Introduction

This new virtual classroom seminar provides a comprehensive overview of the UK corporation tax treatment of intellectual property (IP). It focuses on the corporate intangibles regime set out in Part 8 of the Corporation Tax Act 2009 (CTA 2009), which generally applies to intangible fixed assets (IFAs) created or acquired on or after 1 April 2002.

This session will define and explore key concepts including ‘intangible asset’, ‘intellectual property’ and ‘goodwill’, before examining the full lifecycle of IFAs from a tax perspective. This includes the corporation tax treatment on acquisition, ongoing ownership and disposal.

Consideration will also be given to more complex and technical aspects of the regime, including intra-group transfers, anti-avoidance provisions, transfer pricing principles and the treatment of pre-Finance Act 2002 assets, together with their interaction with the income tax rules.

Expert speaker Karl Leesi of Moore Kingston Smith will also explore selected cross-border issues, including EU considerations and the implications of the OECD BEPS Pillar Two initiative.

Aimed at accountants, tax and legal professionals, this session will highlight key case law developments and equip participants with both a strong technical foundation and an understanding of common practical pitfalls and areas of heightened risk for advisers.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• Scope and development of the corporate intangibles regime
• Application to IFAs created or acquired on or after 1 April 2002
• Alignment with accounting treatment
• Defining intangible assets and intellectual property
• Patents, trademarks, copyright, design rights and know-how
• Tax treatment of goodwill
• Purchased versus internally generated goodwill
• Key changes introduced by the Finance Acts 2015 and 2019
• Assets excluded from the corporate intangibles regime
• Land-related assets, financial assets and rights in companies
• Pre-FA 2002 assets
• Legacy treatment and the extension of the regime from 1 July 2020
• Interaction with income tax rules
• Acquiring and creating IP
• Corporation tax relief for expenditure
• Amortisation rules and the 4% fixed-rate election
• Disposal of IP
• Calculation of tax credits and debits on realisation
• Roll-over relief
• Conditions for deferring tax on disposals and reinvestment in qualifying intangibles
• Intra-group transfers
• Tax-neutral transfers within a group
• De-grouping charges and related risks
• Cross-border considerations
• UK withholding tax under ITA 2007
• Transfer pricing for related-party transactions
• Cross-border IP transfers and IP holding company structures
• Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) and Unassessed Transfer Pricing Profits (UTPP)

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.