UK Tax Strategy

Introduction to our tax strategy

Our UK tax strategy has been approved by the Board of Directors of BMI Group Holdings UK Limited (‘’BMI’’) and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 19 of the UK Finance Act 2016 in respect of our financial year ending 31 December 2023.

BMI is a part of Standard Industries, a global industrial company that operates the world's largest roofing and waterproofing businesses.  BMI strives to be the preferred partner in our markets with a comprehensive portfolio of residential and commercial brands, and the technical expertise to complete the most demanding jobs. 

Tax Vision

Our overall vision for tax is to support our businesses whilst ensuring compliance with our regulatory and legal obligations. Our strategic tax objectives below ensure we achieve our vision for tax alongside our wider commercial objectives.

Our Strategic Tax Objectives and approach to Risk management and governance

Integrate risk management and firmly anchor it in the day to day operations of the business.

The board endorses our Tax Strategy and our Tax Principles. The board ultimately is responsible for the implementation and supervision of the internal control system and procedures relating to risk management. The Chief Financial Officer of BMI has overall executive responsibility for all tax matters.

BMI Group Tax Director is accountable for the management of the tax risks and adoption of the group’s internal control principles. Our regional tax professionals are embedded within the wider business, including for BMI’s UK operations, making real-time tax advice available to support business decisions.

Risk management is embedded in all of our critical business activities, functions, processes and systems through the following mechanisms:

• Risk assessments: we regularly assess known, new and emerging risks.

• Level of acceptable tax risk: our internal tax risk governance processes do not define rigid levels of acceptable tax risk, noting however we at all times adhere to our Tax Principles in all jurisdictions.

• Risk materiality: we rely on our local teams to consider the likelihood and impact of each area of risk and escalate as appropriate. We have a process in place to ensure our local teams are supported in their judgements.

• Risk escalation: Our processes define rigid approval and escalation points that ensure the appropriate decision makers, up to and including the Board.
  Risk controls: we put controls in place over material risks, and periodically assess the effectiveness of those controls.
  

Operate in a sustainable way; improve efficiency and manage our tax cost but not at the expense of supporting our communities

We seek to make contributions to society and our communities by paying the appropriate amount of tax due. Our tax obligations include pricing transactions in compliance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines, based on the arm’s length principle.

To create a sustainable business, we aim to consider the tax impact of business transactions, so the tax outcome is consistent with the commercial and economic substance. We do look to benefit from government sponsored tax incentives and reliefs, but we do not enter into transactions with the sole purpose of achieving a tax advantage.  In seeking to balance the creation of shareholder value with our wider stakeholder interests, we habitually adhere to the principles in our tax strategy and wider business vision.

Where appropriate, we gather input from our external advisors to provide professional feedback to our internal team.

Value added differentiation through a focus on strong and enduring relationships with our stakeholders including tax authorities

We act with integrity when engaging with tax authorities to support positive and sustainable relationships. Where possible, for the purposes of obtaining certainty of our tax positions, we engage with tax authorities regarding the application of the tax law and to identify and resolve any disagreements on a timely basis.

We interpret legislation using supporting guidance and, should any uncertainty arise, we work with tax authorities to obtain rulings or guidance on future tax risks and the interpretation of tax law.

Furthermore, we seek independent external tax advice in relation to uncertain tax to help reduce the risk of disagreements with tax authorities. If any disputes were to arise, we would work with tax authorities to try and achieve an early agreement and resolution.

Our internal stakeholder relationships also are important to us and our people are essential to the successful delivery of our tax strategy. As mentioned above, experts with responsibilities for tax are embedded within the wider business making real-time tax advice available to support business decisions.