The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that stamp duty will be abolished on exchange traded funds. Stamp duty is levied on purchases of UK shares meaning that investors have to pay 0.5 per cent on each transaction worth over £1,000.
The government will no long levy stamp duty on ETFs, which George Osborne has said will help ETFs to be domiciled in the UK. Currently the majority of European ETFs are domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg. Hector McNeil, Co-CEO of Boost ETP, said: “The news from the budget today on stamp duty and ETFs is an interesting one. This only impacts ETFs that track and hold UK listed securities. The budget doesn’t state if this affects mutual funds or not. If it doesn’t then this is a major advantage for ETFs as they will cost even less and track better compared to mutual funds. The one puzzling statement is that the expected result is fund companies will base ETFs in the UK now. I really don’t see this happening and suspect fund companies will continue to domicile in Ireland and Luxembourg."
However, Monica Gogna, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, says that this could help Europe compete with the US: “It is heartening to hear the Chancellor’s move to support the financial services sector demonstrated by the move to abolish stamp duty for Exchange Traded Funds. This is surely another sign that the ETF industry in Europe is set to grow and compete with the much larger ETF sector in the USA.“
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Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2013
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