Fears of multi-billion dollar China ETF CGT bill misplaced

Tax treaties likely to save ETF providers from a swingeing retrospective bill

A briefing by the Beijing tax authorities last week to resolve outstanding capital gains tax (CGT) led to suggestions that the sector could be facing a multi billion backtax bill, but industry experts say these fears have been overplayed and the net result could be positive for providers.

Along with the launch of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect on November 17 last year, Chinese authorities issued circular 79, which gave a CGT exemption for future equity trading but imposed a bill for