What REITS mean for you

摘要

REITs became a reality this month, and they are about to become a force in the property development world. But what do they mean for the firms that work with them? Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, finally came into effect on 1 January. Their aim is to provide a more favourable tax regime for anybody operating a property rental business. The system means gains on sales of rental-producing property assets will be tax free. It also means that tax on property rental income will occur only at shareholder level, after the distribution of profit. By contrast, the old regime had tax hits both at company level, on income, and at shareholder level, on dividends.