March 19, 2018
As you may already know, OneLife organised in March an IBERIA/LATAM roadshow in Zürich, Geneva and Luxembourg to showcase our solutions for these regions with great success! As described in our communication on March 16, 2018 and also shared on LinkedIn, OneLife was privileged to partner with some of the best lawyers from Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Portugal, Spain and Brazil.
For Iberia, the most reputed lawyers specialised in tax, legal and regulatory matters involving life assurance in their respective jurisdictions duly represented Spain and Portugal in the different panels.
Spain: Political & fiscal context
On the Spanish panel, Javier Seijo from EY started by introducing to the audience the political and fiscal context in Spain, focusing notably on the potential political measures which could if adopted modify the Spanish Wealth and Inheritance/Gift taxation landscape. Indeed, it was mentioned how some Spanish Autonomous regions had recently implemented different changes in their taxation and others were planning to do so in the near future.
Benefits of using life assurance for wealth planning purposes
In the second part of the panel, Enrique Lopez de Ceballos from Eversheds, Carlos Ferrer from CuatreCasas and Fabricio González from Anaford spoke about the different benefits and advantages of estate and wealth planning through the use of unit-linked life assurance products in the Spanish market. Amongst other points, it was highlighted that life assurance could be used as a flexible succession-planning tool, that it preserves the confidentiality of the policyholder and the beneficiaries and that it enables the policyholder to protect his wealth in case of unforeseen circumstances (insolvency, divorce…).
On the fiscal side, the tax treatment of life assurance for Spanish resident policyholders was duly described in terms of Income Tax, Wealth Tax and Inheritance and Gift Tax. In this context, special reference was made to the recent rulings issued by the Spanish tax authorities on Wealth Tax applied to unit-linked life insurance products and which could open interesting planning opportunities.
Non-traditional use of unit-linked life assurance
In the third part of the panel, the speakers gave a brief overview of how unit-linked life assurance could be used in non-traditional ways. For instance, life assurance could be used as an instrument to vehicle remunerations to key managers or sportsmen or pensions to a given group of a firms’ employees.
Spain: Cross-border
On a final note, the speakers discussed the different planning opportunities for multi-jurisdictional and cross-border cases using life assurance and gave some examples of successful cases where they had acted as advisers.
Should you wish to obtain additional technical information on any of the above, we invite you to get in contact with Javier Seijo, Enrique Lopez de Ceballos, Carlos Ferrer or Fabricio González who will be happy to provide you with legal and tax assistance.
Portugal: Fiscal context
On the Portuguese panel, Joao Espanha from Espanha Associados and Filipe Romao from Uría Menéndez started by providing the audience with an overview of the fiscal context in Portugal, which for the moment remains rather attractive for HNWIs, compared to other European countries. Besides, the likelihood of new taxation measures approved by the Portuguese government and involving Wealth or Inheritance/Succession was deemed to be low in the short term as not present in the political agenda.
Benefits of using life assurance for wealth planning purposes
In the second part of the panel, Joao and Filipe commented on the different benefits of life assurance for Portuguese resident policyholders, for instance, flexible and efficient succession planning and protection of the financial assets from a financial and regulatory perspective (i.e. Luxembourg “Triangle of Security”). The fiscal treatment of life assurance unit-linked products was thoroughly discussed as well. Indeed, life assurance in Portugal benefits from an advantageous tax treatment (i.e. decreasing effective taxation when the policy is held over 5/8 years and no application of Portuguese Stamp Duty tax when the benefit of the policy is paid to the appointed beneficiaries).
Portugal: latest news & developments
The last section of the panel was dedicated to several “hot topics” such as (i) the recent regulatory changes which could affect the contribution in kind to life insurance products in the Portuguese market, (ii) the possibility to offer “self-management” to Portuguese resident policyholders and, last but not least, (iii) the tax treatment on redemptions from life assurance policies made by Portuguese resident policyholders. On all these topics, Joao and Filipe made clear that not all the local legal/tax practitioners had concurring views and that, possibly, the outcome could vary depending on the advisor, the policyholder as such and the insurance company offering the product.
Should you wish to obtain additional technical information on any of the above, we invite you to get in contact with Joao Espanha and Filipe Romao, who will be happy to provide you with legal and tax assistance.
Gonzalo Garcia-Perez, Wealth Planner Manager for Iberia and Latam markets, at OneLife