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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
United Kingdom | Publication | February 2023
Ahead of the Budget on March 15, 2023, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has published its Blueprint for a better tax treatment of pensions in which it proposes:
The thinking behind these changes takes into account the current tax treatment of pensions, which is “exempt-exempt-taxed”. Essentially, contributions are tax free, as are investment returns, then withdrawals in the form of pension income are taxed. However, NICs are generally subject to more generous treatment and are effectively “exempt-exempt-exempt” throughout the pension process.
Comment
The IFS believes its proposals are more equitable. However, it remains to be seen whether the Government would be willing to shoulder the political cost of such radical tax changes.
A lesser measure that would be more palatable for the working population, particularly as the Government is encouraging people out of retirement and back to work, is the abolition of the money purchase annual allowance and the reinstatement of annual increases to the lifetime and annual allowances.
Publication
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
Publication
On February 2, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union confirmed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives had signed the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation, referred to as the AI Act. Approval by the EU Parliament followed on 13 March 2024, and the AI Act is likely to appear in the EU’s Official Journal around May 2024. The AI Act aims to establish a stringent legal framework governing the development, marketing, and utilisation of artificial intelligence within the region, thereby marking a significant advancement in the regulation of this burgeoning domain.
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The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
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