Readers’ forum: Offsetting platform fees against investment income

Having recently participated in a CPD course the lecturer covered the increasingly common topic of peer-to-peer lending (P2P).

Online platforms offering P2P lending typically operate by the investor depositing a lump sum into the platform which is then lent to individual or business borrowers. Monthly repayments are then made by the borrowers to the platform and the net amount (being a mixture of capital and interest less a percentage-based fee charged by the platform) is available for investors to withdraw.

An interesting point which caught my attention was that relief is available to investors/lenders on the P2P platform’s fees by way of deducting these from interest due to the lender.

I therefore wonder whether relief is available on the same basis for similar cases we come across regularly – such as fixed or percentage-based fees payable to a platform (eg bank or equity house) through which an...