DIVIDEND TAX HIKE

摘要

Tax pundits have been telling us for many years that income tax on dividends would increase. That moment finally arrived in the Summer Budget 2015 but we never thought it would be like this. Our beloved imputation system - designed to prevent double taxation of corporate profits -will be consigned to the fiscal dustbin on 6 April 2016. The Treasury points out that this regime was 'designed more than 40 years ago when corporation tax was 50% and the total bill on dividends for some was over 80%'. Similarly, the (non-reclaimable) 10% tax credit that has been carried with dividends since April 1999 will be scrapped.