Introduction
Which types of partnerships are affected?
Economic substance requirements for affected partnerships
Reporting requirements and potential penalties for affected partnerships
Comment
In a further amendment to the economic substance regulations, the Income Tax (Substance Requirements) Implementation Regulations 2021 (the regulations) were made by the Policy and Resources Committee of the States of Guernsey on 15 June 2021 and came into force on 30 June 2021. The regulations update and consolidate the previous amendments to the original economic substance regulations made in 2018.
The main amendment to the economic substance regime is that the regulations will apply to certain newly formed Guernsey partnerships as of 1 July 2021 and many other Guernsey partnerships that existed on 30 June 2021 from 1 January 2022.
Which types of partnerships are affected?
As with companies, the regulations do not apply to collective investment vehicles structured as partnerships unless they are self-managed.
With the further exceptions of wholly domestic(1) partnerships and partnerships whose partners are all subject to income tax under the Income Tax (Guernsey) Law 1975 (which are outside the regulations' scope), a partnership is in the regulations' scope if it is:
- a partnership that is not:
- a limited partnership; or
- a limited liability partnership which carries on business activity in Guernsey (a general partnership);
- a limited partnership registered under the Limited Partnerships (Guernsey) Law 1995, unless its place of effective management is in a qualifying jurisdiction(2) (a limited partnership);
- a limited liability partnership registered under the Limited Liability Partnerships (Guernsey) Law 2013, unless its place of effective management is in a qualifying jurisdiction (a limited liability partnership); and
- a general partnership, limited partnership or limited liability partnership, or a corresponding person, entity or arrangement that is registered, formed or entered into outside Guernsey and that has its place of effective management in Guernsey and carries on business activity in Guernsey (a foreign partnership).
In scope partnerships must comply with the regulations in the same way as in scope companies.
Economic substance requirements for affected partnerships
Affected partnerships that carry on relevant activities(3) or derive income from holding IP assets or being a pure equity holding vehicle must comply with the applicable substance requirements unless, in the applicable accounting period, they have no income from such business or activities.
When assessing the business and activities of the partnership for the purposes of assessing whether the substance requirements apply, the tax authority will look at the business and activities of the partnership as a whole and not those of the individual partners (although these may be taken into account for determining the business activities of the partnership as a whole). In addition, the individual partners will not be required to comply with the requirements of the regulation in respect of any income received from a partnership carrying on relevant business.
As for companies, partnerships carrying on relevant activities must comply with the following economic substance requirements:
- the relevant activity must be directed and managed in Guernsey;
- core income generating activity relating to the relevant activity must be carried on in Guernsey;
- must be an adequate level of appropriately qualified employees in Guernsey;
- must be an adequate level of operating expenditure in Guernsey; and
- must be an adequate physical presence in Guernsey.
The principal change to the regulations to accommodate partnerships is in relation to what constitutes the "board" for the purposes of the managed and directed test. The regulations provide that the relevant management committee or other similar governing body constitutes the governing board for the purposes of the relevant requirements.
As such, by way of clarification of what this means for partnerships, "directed and managed in Guernsey" means that the governing board meets in Guernsey with adequate frequency and that:
- during those meetings, a quorum of the members of the governing board are physically present in Guernsey;
- strategic decisions of the partnership are made which are suitably recorded in the minutes of that meeting; and
- the minutes and records of the partnership are kept in Guernsey.
As with company boards, the governing board as a whole must have the necessary knowledge and expertise to make strategic decisions for the partnership.
The substance requirements relating to partnerships deriving income from IP assets or from being a pure equity holding vehicle are similarly identical to those relating to companies, save for the clarification of what constitutes the "governing board" for partnerships for the purposes of the directed and managed test in the case of a partnership deriving income from holding IP assets.
Reporting requirements and potential penalties for affected partnerships
Partnerships that are in scope of the regulations, whether or not they earn income from a relevant activity or from holding IP assets or being a pure equity holding vehicle for the relevant accounting period, will be required to submit a return to the Director of Revenue Services indicating whether or not the economic substance requirements applied to them during the relevant period and, if they did apply, report on how they complied with the economic substance requirements during the relevant period.
Failure to comply with the required reporting or economic substance requirements for any relevant period causes the partnership to be liable to:
- fines of £10,000 for the first year, £50,000 for the third year and £100,000 for the fourth year;
- the spontaneous exchange of information by the Director of Revenue Services to relevant competent authorities; and
- ultimately, where it is a registered partnership, being struck off the relevant register.
Where the partnership is not a registered entity, the fine for the fourth year of failure to comply is increased to £150,000 and is levied annually thereafter while the partnership continues to be in breach.
The application of the regulations to partnerships is more nuanced than for companies. While many partnerships, by their nature, will either fall outside the regulations' scope altogether or will not be carrying on activities that require them to comply with the economic substance requirements, most will need to undertake a legal analysis of their structure and activities to ensure that they are either outside of the scope of or comply with the regulations.
For further information on this topic please contact Tim Clipstone at Ogier by telephone (+44 1481 721 672) or email ([email protected]). The Ogier website can be accessed at www.ogier.com.
Endnotes
(1) "Wholly domestic" means that a partnership substantially carries on its activities within Guernsey and is not a part of an intra-group collection of persons, any other member of which is either:
- a tax resident in a different jurisdiction; or
- a resident for tax purposes in one jurisdiction and subject to tax with respect to the business carried out through a permanent establishment in another jurisdiction.
(2) "Qualifying jurisdiction" means a jurisdiction other than Guernsey in respect of which either:
- the partnership is subject to the application of substance requirements under the law of that jurisdiction which are substantially the same as the substance requirements of Guernsey; or
- the highest rate of income tax on any person in that jurisdiction is at least 10%.
- banking;
- insurance;
- fund management, including self-managed funds;
- financing and leasing;
- headquartering;
- shipping; or
- acting as a distribution and service centre.