Share repurchases

<p>The UK government recently introduced legislation to treat the qualifying distribution on a repurchase of shares in the same way as 'foreign income dividends'. This paper examines and criticises this reform from two perspectives. First, there is no underlying rationale for such an approach. Second, the legislation moves the tax system further away from simplification. A better approach would have been to remove the advance corporation tax (ACT) charge on a repurchase.</p>