Guidance

Tax implications from the withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reforms

Find information about HMRC’s view on the main taxation impact from the withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reform.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 19 March 2020
• Last updated: 12 January 2021
  Show all updates

  1. 12 January 2021

     Updates to: 'Guidance on the taxation implications for businesses from the withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reform' and 'Draft guidance on the taxation implications for individuals from withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reform'.

  2. 12 November 2020

     The guidance has been updated with information about the tax implications of the withdrawal of London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for individuals and businesses.

  3. 19 March 2020

     First published.

Documents

Guidance on the taxation implications for businesses from the withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reform

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Draft guidance on the taxation implications for individuals from the withdrawal of LIBOR and other benchmark rate reform

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Details

London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a set of interest rate benchmarks based on the rates at which banks are willing to borrow wholesale unsecured funds.

It is used in a large number of loans, derivatives and other financial instruments.

Publication of LIBOR in its current form is expected to stop after 2021 and parties to financial instruments will need to transition to using alternative reference rates.

These papers explain HMRC’s view on the tax implications of changes to financial instruments driven by benchmark reform.

Although these papers refer to LIBOR, other benchmark rates are also being withdrawn or reformed.

Examples of this are:

• Euro Overnight Index Average (EONIA)
• US Effective Federal Funds Rate
• Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR)

The guidance applies equally in those situations.