Intellectual Property: The Key Tax Issues

The course will cover the following objectives:

• Research and development expenditure including the Finance Act 2023 changes. This includes;
  • The additional compliance obligations
  • The restriction to broadly UK activities
  • The extension of R&D to new activities.

 

• Structuring an R&D project
  • The importance of records and team minutes.

 

• Qualifying companies
  • Who can claim and who can not.

 

• Qualifying activities the scope of activities for R&D
  • Recent issues arising from case law.

 

• How to submit an R&D report
  • The good, the bad and the ugly.

 

• The calculation of R&D for large companies and SMEs.
  • This takes account of the FA 2023 changes and compares the effective tax reliefs under both systems.

 

• Qualifying conditions for patent box relief.
  • This looks at the changes which tightened up the rules.

 

• How to calculate patent box relief.
  • The relief has been updated so that the rate of relief remains 10% even though the corporation tax rate has increased.

 

• The taxation principles of Intellectual Property income and contrasts with accounting treatment.
  • The adjustments that are required.

 

• Trademarks
  • How to value trademarks and the tax consequences.

 

• Royalties and Licensing
  • Achieving an intercompany agreement which is not susceptible to a Transfer Pricing challenge.

 

• Double Tax Treaties and IP
  • How double tax treaties treat Intellectual Property in a typical OECD model DTT.

 

• IP and the Diverted Profits Tax regime.
  • Intellectual Property is particularly targeted in the DPT regime.
  • The seminar looks at why and how this becomes the subject of a DPT adjustment.

 

• Charging and licensing arrangements.
  • Ensuring that the charges for the use of IP are commercially justifiable.

 

• The tax treatment of goodwill including incorporation and the tax treatment on the sale of goodwill.
  • This looks at the several changes to the treatment of Intangible Fixed Assets from 2002 to date.

Our trainer is the Director of a consultancy company specialising in taxation, share scheme advice, reward and lecturing. He has developed a specialised share scheme service for small companies and advises FTSE companies on communication.

The lecturing covers most aspects of Direct Taxation but his particular interests include employment taxation and transfer pricing, which poses unusual conceptual challenges.

Previous to this he worked for Henderson for nearly 9 years, leading the Share Schemes team for part of this time.

He took the level 7 CIPD Masters qualification whilst at Henderson. Before Henderson, he was with Australian Mutual Provident (AMP) and helped set up one of the first Share Incentive Plans (SIP) for large companies in 2001. It was so unusual at the time that the Revenue phoned the trainer to find out how they could encourage more large companies to adopt SIP.

Our trainer started his career in taxation and for the following 16 years worked in three of the “Big Four” accountancy firms. He ended up as a Senior Manager with Deloitte & Touche, having worked on issues such as profit-related pay, share schemes, expatriate tax, tax investigations, reward management, US taxation, transfer pricing and corporate tax.

Away from work, the trainer likes cricket, history, skiing, tennis and gardening. He gives lectures on history which helps keep his presentation skills fresh.

This intellectual property course will ensure delegates are fully versed in understanding the tax implications of IP.

They should be equipped to deal with all aspects of the challenges in this area.

This includes the FA 2023 changes, calculating patent box reliefs, and submitting R&D reports.

The taxation of intellectual property has become considerably more complex. Tax authorities worldwide have looked at both trying to encourage the creation of intellectual property in their jurisdictions and trying to ensure that it is not diverted elsewhere; and that appropriate revenues are collected in respect of IP.

This course therefore looks at both the carrot and the stick in terms of IP. The carrot being the various tax incentives such as patent box and research and development; both of which have been subject to significant changes in recent years.

The second element looks at the authority's attempts to protect tax revenues from the exploitation of IP. This looks at Diverted Profits Tax, Transfer Pricing and withholding taxes as well as other measures which are designed to ensure that income does not leak away.

Any professional who deals with intellectual property; whether it is R&D, patents, or trademarks, knows how to keep up to date with this area.

The past ten years have seen substantial changes in all of these areas-  including;  

• the treatment of intangible fixed assets
• the amortisation of goodwill
• R&D
• Patent box

It is therefore necessary to keep on top of these changes to be able to advise clients how to take advantage of the reliefs available and to avoid the tax traps.

The Government gives attractive tax reliefs to encourage innovation and technology as well as research. These tax reliefs have increased in value in recent budgets.

This course shows you how to maximise the value of business.

Recently the Treasury issued a review in this area and the course will cover the conclusions and outcome of the review.

We will also look at how IP taxation has changed as a result of the measures in the Finance Act 2023 and the proposed merging of the small and large company regimes for R&D.