The system for taxing company profit. Two systems are possible: in the ‘classical’ system the company is taxed as such. Any dividend have to be paid out of post-tax company income, and are taxed again as the income of shareholders. In the imputation system, company profits are taxed as though they were the income of shareholders, and dividends are not then taxed again. The argument against the classical system is that it impedes capital mobility between companies, as income left in the company where it is earned is taxed much less than income distributed as dividends and then reinvested in another company. The UK system of Corporation Tax is a mixture of these systems: company income distributed as dividends is taxed on an imputation basis via Advance Corporation Tax (ACT), while retained profits are taxed on a classical basis via Mainstream Corporation Tax.

• uncompetitive
• UNCTAD
• undated security
• under-capitalized
• under-developed country
• under-funded pension scheme
• underlying rate of inflation
• under-subscription
• under-valued currency
• underwriting
• undistributed profits
• UNDP
• unearned income
• unemployable
• unemployment
• unemployment benefit
• unemployment rate
• unexpected inflation
• unfair competition
• unfair dismissal
• unfunded pension scheme
• unified budget
• uniform business rate
• uniform distribution
• union