Mohammed Amin MA FCA AMCT CTA (Fellow), tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and head of the firm’s Islamic finance practice in the UK, explores the new UK tax law on sukuk. This article is based on the presentation given by the author at IIBI’s monthly lecture in London, July 2007.

Diagram 1 illustrates an ijara sukuk. The owner has a building and decides to raise money using that building. It sets up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) and sells the building to that SPV, and then rents it back. The SPV pays for that building by issuing sukuk. Those sukuk are not a debt owed by the SPV; instead they are a direct legal claim on a proportionate share of the building and of the rent it generates.

Diagram 2 illustrates a mudarabah sukuk, based upon an actual example. XYZ trading company has a collection of business assets and wants to raise $500 million to use in its business. It sets up an SPV, here XYZ Sukuk Ltd, which raises $500 million to buy the assets. That $500 million comes from the investors as payment for sukuk certificates. Next the assets, which are now owned by XYZ Sukuk Ltd on trust for the investors, are contributed to a mudarabah whereby 99 per cent of the profits of the mudarabah will go to the trust for payments to investors subject to a maximum limit, in this case of six per cent, i.e. six per cent of $500 million = $30 million p.a. Again, the investors are not receiving interest but a share
of the business profits.

 

CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE AT…..http://islamicfinanceandbanking.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-uk-tax-law-on-sukuk-mohammed-amin_4062.html