Tax support for overseas businesses investing in the UK
Non-resident businesses can get advice on how UK tax law applies using HMRC's Inward Investment Support service.
Overview
If your business is based outside the UK and you’re thinking of making a significant investment here, HMRC can help.
Inward Investment Support (IIS) is a service we provide to businesses which are not resident in the UK and do not already deal with us.
What support is available if you’re thinking of investing in the UK
If you have a non-resident business, the IIS will help you to understand the tax consequence of significant investment in the UK.
By ‘significant’, we usually mean investments which are intended to total £30 million or more. We will also help on smaller investments, if we agree they may be of importance to the national or regional economy.
What the IIS service can do for your business
You can ask HMRC for written confirmation of how UK tax law applies to specific transactions or events. To be able to advise you appropriately, we’ll need information like:
- the name, address and country of residence of the business
- the nature and size of the projected transactions, the taxes involved, and the chronology — or proposed chronology of the transactions
- the commercial background — describing the reasons why the business is considering the transactions
- any specific legal points you know, or believe arise, which outline the points at issue (if you already have legal advice, a copy of this may help us to respond sooner)
- the reasons why you believe the investment is of importance to the nation or regional economy
We will respond within 28 days. If we cannot provide a full response within that time, we’ll contact you to explain why not.
To make sure you get the right advice from the IIS service, you must:
- set out all the relevant facts
- draw attention to all the issues
Read the HMRC Charter for more information about what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.
Who to contact
If you’d like to discuss the tax implications of your investment, you can email mailbox.inwardinvestmentsupport@hmrc.gov.uk.
We will treat any information you give us in the strictest confidence. Read the HMRC Privacy Notice for more information.
Get more information
You can get more general (non-tax) advice on investing in the UK from the Department for Business and Trade.
If you’re an existing UK business seeking advice on significant inward investment, you should contact your customer relations manager.
You can get further guidance if you’re a UK resident businesses seeking advanced pricing arrangements, statutory clearances and non-statutory clearances.
Updates to this page
Last updated 25 October 2023 + show all updates
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Guidance on how to get general, non-tax advice on investing in the UK in the 'Get more information' section has been updated.
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We have updated the email address for Inward Investment Support.
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First published.