Invest Smart: Reducing Tax Drag

There are a number of tax touch points that impact investment portfolios. From investor taxation issues such as tax breaks and preferential gains treatment, to the taxation of fund vehicles including treaty access, through to the actual treatment of investment returns. Tax can incentivise, dissuade, and distort investment processes. With an increasing focus on tax transparency, tax has been in the headlines often for the wrong reasons. A multitude of stakeholders are seeking to influence the debate.

• What role, if any, should taxes have in the investment process?
• Cacophony of competing voices - trade associations, domestic tax policy and trading blocs, interest groups (Principles for Responsible Investment, Oxfam etc)
• Governance - US Supreme Court’s decision in Tibble v Edison International establishing fiduciary duty (proper management of foreign tax reclaims)
• Investment efficiency drivers - why capture information on tax inefficiencies, and what is the relevance for different jurisdictions?