HMRC announced in November that it would put forward a proposal to end the UK's relatively new 'Patent Box' scheme, which currently allows income from the commercial exploitation of intellectual property (IP) to be taxed at 10%. The announcement was in response to German concerns about artificial shifting of profits between European countries.
Tony Hickson, Managing Director of the Technology Transfer team at Imperial College and PraxisUnico Board member, says that although “it may make investing in or acquiring UK spin-outs by foreign companies or investors slightly less attractive….. I don’t think that the lack of patent box would be reason enough to put off an acquirer or investor”.
PraxisUnico believes the removal of the scheme will be unlikely to affect universities significantly or factor into whether or how they commercialise their IP, as the legislation is little used in technology transfer offices in the HE sector.