Dividend relief offered to foreign subsidiaries

LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor Alistair Darling moved to shore up Britain's position as a leading destination for corporate headquarters on Monday by offering relief on dividends paid by foreign subsidiaries to their UK parent firms.

Concerns over proposed taxation of foreign earnings have led several big companies -- including WPP (WPP.L), Shire (SHP.L) and United Business Media (UBM.L) -- to shift their tax bases away from Britain.

"I will introduce an exemption for foreign dividends in 2009 for large and medium businesses, and improve our rules for taxing Controlled Foreign Companies," Darling said in his pre-budget report.

For full coverage of Darling's pre-budget statement, click on: here