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BP » Topics » Additional tax considerations

This excerpt taken from the BP 20-F filed Mar 6, 2007.
Additional tax considerations
UK inheritance tax
The Estate Tax Convention applies to inheritance tax. ADSs held by an individual who is domiciled for the purposes of the Estate Tax Convention in the US and is not for the purposes of the Estate Tax Convention a national of the UK will not be subject to UK inheritance tax on the individual’s death or on transfer during the individual’s lifetime unless, among other things, the ADSs are part of the business property of a permanent establishment situated in the UK used for the performance of independent personal services. In the exceptional case where ADSs are subject both to inheritance tax and to US federal gift or estate tax, the Estate Tax Convention generally provides for tax payable in the US to be credited against tax payable in the UK or for tax paid in the UK to be credited against tax payable in the US, based on priority rules set forth in the Estate Tax Convention.

UK stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax
The statements below relate to what is understood to be the current practice of the UK Inland Revenue under existing law.
     Provided that the instrument of transfer is not executed in the UK and remains at all times outside the UK and the transfer does not relate to any matter or thing done or to be done in the UK, no UK stamp duty is payable on the acquisition or transfer of ADSs. Neither will an agreement to transfer ADSs in the form of ADRs give rise to a liability to stamp duty reserve tax.
     Purchases of ordinary shares, as opposed to ADSs, through the CREST system of paperless share transfers will be subject to stamp duty reserve tax at 0.5% . The charge will arise as soon as there is an agreement for the transfer of the shares (or, in the case of a conditional agreement, when the condition is fulfilled). The stamp duty reserve tax will apply to agreements to transfer ordinary shares even if the agreement is made outside the UK between two non-residents. Purchases of ordinary shares outside the CREST system are subject either to stamp duty at a rate of 50 pence per £100 (or part), or stamp duty reserve tax at 0.5% . Stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax are generally the liability of the purchaser. A subsequent transfer of ordinary shares to the Depositary’s nominee will give rise to further stamp duty at the rate of £1.50 per £100 (or part) or stamp duty reserve tax at the rate of 1.5% of the value of the ordinary shares at the time of the transfer.
     A transfer of the underlying ordinary shares to an ADR holder on cancellation of the ADSs without transfer of beneficial ownership will give rise to UK stamp duty at the rate of £5 per transfer.


 

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     An ADR holder electing to receive ADSs instead of a cash dividend will be responsible for the stamp duty reserve tax due on issue of shares to the Depositary’s nominee and calculated at the rate of 1.5% on the issue price of the shares. Current UK Inland Revenue practice is to calculate the issue price by reference to the total cash receipt (i.e., cash dividend plus the Refund if any) to which a US holder would have been entitled had the election to receive ADSs instead of a cash dividend not been made. ADR holders electing to receive ADSs instead of the cash dividend authorize the Depositary to sell sufficient shares to cover this liability.

   
  Documents on display
   
   
BP’s Annual Report and Accounts is available online at www.bp.com. Shareholders have the ability to receive a hard copy of BP’s complete audited financial statements, free of charge, by contacting BP Distribution Services at +44 (0)870 241 3269 or through an e-mail request addressed to bpdistributionservices@bp.com, or BP’s US Shareholder Services office in Warrenville, Illinois at 1 800 638 5672 or through an e-mail request addressed to shareholderus@bp.com.
     The company is subject to the information requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 applicable to foreign private issuers. In accordance with these requirements, the company files its Annual Report on Form 20-F and other related documents with the SEC. It is possible to read and copy documents that have been filed with the SEC at the SEC’s public reference room located at 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, US. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 or log on to www.sec.gov. In addition, BP’s SEC filings are available to the public at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. BP discloses on its website at www.bp.com/NYSEcorporategovernancerules significant ways (if any) in which its corporate governance practices differ from those mandated for US companies under NYSE listing standards.
 
   
  Controls and procedures
   
   
Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures
     The company maintains ’disclosure controls and procedures’ as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e), that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in reports the company files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management, including the company’s group chief executive and chief financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
     In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, our management, including the group chief executive and chief financial officer, recognize that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the company have been detected. Further, in the design and evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures our management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Also, we have investments in certain unconsolidated entities. As we do not control these entities, our disclosure controls and procedures with respect to such entities are necessarily substantially more limited than those we maintain with respect to our consolidated subsidiaries. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, mis-statements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected. The company’s disclosure controls and procedures have been designed to meet, and management believe that they meet, reasonable assurance standards.
     The company’s management, with the participation of the company’s group chief executive and chief financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the company’s disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(b) as of the end of the period covered by this annual report. Based on that evaluation, the group chief

executive and chief financial officer have concluded that the company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level.

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