Changes to UK Dividend Tax

[JB300]

Apologies if this has been asked/answered before, I did do a search of the "Home Country Forum" & couldn't find anything covering it.

From April 6th 2016, the way Tax is calculated on UK dividends is changing from the notional Tax credit of 10% to a Tax Free Allowance of £5,000 & then 7.5% for Basic Tax Rate payers, 32.5% for Higher Tax Rate payers (currently pay 25%) & 38.1% for the Additional Tax rate payers (currently pay 30.56%), essentially meaning that after the 1st £5,000 everybody is 7.5% worse off.

I've tried searching for more information but cannot find anymore than mentioned above so was hoping somebody might have more information on:-

- Will the removal of the notional Tax credit mean that companies can pay more dividends (If I remember correctly from when I payed myself dividends from my LTD company, this is a notional amount that isn't paid by the Company or the person receiving the Dividends so I'm guessing the answer is no)

- Will the exemption from further tax on dividends for non-UK Tax residents still apply (I've seen no mention of this anywhere so am assuming/hoping we'll just need to pay the 7.5%... ... ... For now)

- Will Scrip dividends be treated any differently or will these now come with a Tax Bill (I suspect the latter as I know I had to pay additional tax on my SDs when I was a higher rate UK Tax payer).

- Does anybody have any more info or links to decent sites/pages so I can read up on it.

Thanks

JB

[KittenKong]

Will the exemption from further tax on dividends for non-UK Tax residents still apply (I've seen no mention of this anywhere so am assuming/hoping we'll just need to pay the 7.5%... ... ... For now)

Good question. I've seen no answers either but I imagine that the current arrangement of no tax being due beyond that applied at source will continue.

If it doesnt continue then I will certainly be selling all the dividend-paying stock I own directly in the UK (and I have quite a lot) and I imagine that many others would do likewise.