UK Property Rich Collective Investment Funds
On 6 April 2019 new legislation was passed in the UK in respect of the taxation of UK Property Rich Collective Investment Vehicles. This change meant that overseas insurers, such as Utmost, would potentially be subject to corporation tax when policy-linked units in such funds were sold. As a result of these provisions, the Utmost group of companies determined that UK Property Rich funds could no longer be linked to open architecture policies.
On 4 November 2020 HMRC released a further consultation on new draft regulations which would exempt overseas Insurers from these requirements, providing their aggregate holdings in such funds via their long term business funds do not exceed a specified threshold. On 2 March 2021 the draft regulations were laid before the House of Commons and are expected to become enacted on the 24 March. As a result, the Utmost group of companies is now able to accept policyholder requests to subscribe for units in UK Property Rich funds, and subject to each company’s aggregate holding remaining below the specified threshold.