Asset Managers To Take Centrestage In Business: PwC Report
Foretelling significant changes in tax structures around the world, newly released PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) report reveals that the future of businesses is dependent on how well their asset managers deal with this emergent tax risk.
Titled, ‘Asset Management 2020 and beyond: Transforming your business for a new global tax world’, the report forecasts that global assets under management to swell to $102 trillion in 2020.
It rationalises that as banks and insurers retreat from many business lines, asset managers are becoming more influential across a range of products, creating a new breed of global mega-managers.
“This is attracting huge focus from tax authorities, who, come 2020, will have specialist teams with the capabilities to carry out much more detailed enquiries than in the past, and the powers to request real-time investor-related information,” the report states.
Interpreting the report from an Indian standpoint, PwC’s Transfer Pricing (Financial Services) Partner, Dhaivat Anjaria says, “The increasing global investment and the emerging business and tax landscape that includes global dimensions such as the OECD’s BEPS project and the local asset management regulations clearly emphasise the relevance of the guidance from the report for asset managers. Asset managers with an India interplay will, therefore, need to meet investors’ expectations in terms of robust tax frameworks integrated with their operations”.
Similarly, globally investors will expect robust and efficient tax infrastructure and will have a minimal tolerance of tax uncertainty or tax adjustments. As a result, tax will be a key operational and business activity, requiring specialist resources, a new approach and integration into the front, back and middle office activities.
The report further states that portfolio taxation will become a key battleground and that technology will be key to performance and client satisfaction.
