Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stealth taxes, Lotus, PayPal

Almost 13,000 offshore companies holding UK property have failed to declare their ultimate owners and may now face fines and a ban on selling their land, the government has said. Martin Callanan, a business minister, praised the introduction of the new register of overseas owners of UK properties, saying it had been “invaluable for tax and revenue services, bringing transparency to opaque offshore trusts often used to obscure assets for tax purposes”. – Guardian

Stealth taxes are hitting higher earners more than expected, with rising wages helping the Treasury to rake in an extra £12bn alone last year, according to the Government's spending watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said a stronger jobs market meant more people were dragged into paying the 40p rate of income tax rate than previously thought, pushing up employee tax and national insurance revenues sharply. – Telegraph

Lotus is to list its electric car business in the US in a $5.4bn deal backed by the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault. Lotus Technology, the EV division of the British car marquee, is to merge with a special acquisition company (SPAC) listed in New York. The SPAC is backed by L Catterton, a private equity business part-owned by the Arnault family. – Telegraph

British boardrooms have been warned to brace for a further wave of investor activism after a record number of new campaigns at European companies propelled global activity by corporate raiders to its highest level since 2018. A report released yesterday by Lazard, the boutique investment bank, showed there were 235 new initiatives started by activist shareholders around the world last year, a 36 per cent increase on 2021 and a resurgence after three years of falling interventions. – The Times

PayPal announced plans to lay off about 2,000 employees, reducing its global workforce by 7 per cent, as it became the latest technology group to cut costs ahead of an expected slowdown. The payments group said it needed to take further action to address “the challenging macroeconomic environment” amid fears of a recession. Shares in PayPal rose 2.3 per cent, or $1.85, to close at $81.49 in New York last night. – The Times