6 November 2022

TOMBS - Off-market buybacks: time to end regulatory capture

The budget announcement of plans to align the treatment of off-market buy backs with on-market buybacks, despite virtually no details being given, has provoked squeals of complaint from vested interests. Tax-driven off-market buybacks (TOMBS as we have called them) have been around since 1997, and the rationale for the allowance of this unfair tax rort has never been publicly explained by the relevant regulators.