Coal Act 1938

Payments on account

19 (1) At any time before the vesting date, or after that date but before the relevant certificates have become conclusive under paragraph 17 of this Schedule, the Commission, if they are satisfied that the compensation for any holding, or the aggregate of the compensation for a number of holdings to which the same person is entitled, will be not less than a particular amount, may make payment of such sum not exceeding that amount as they may think fit on account of the compensation for the holding or holdings :

Provided that no payment on account shall be made under this paragraph, except with the consent of the person entitled, either—

(a) before the first day of January nineteen hundred and forty; or

(b) unless the Commission have given to the person entitled not less than three months' notice in writing of their intention to make the payment.

(2) A payment on account made under this paragraph to the person entitled to the compensation for more than one holding shall be deemed to have been paid on account of the compensation for such of those holdings as the Commission may direct when making the payment, or, if no such direction is given, on account of the compensation for each of them rateably in proportion to the amount thereof.

(3) A payment on account made under this paragraph before the vesting date, together with interest thereon for the period between the date on which the payment is made and the vesting date at the rate of three pounds per cent. per annum less income tax at the standard rate, shall be treated in account as a payment on account of the capital of the compensation made on the vesting date, and the said interest shall be deemed for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts to be paid on each anniversary of the date of the payment on account that occurs before the vesting date and on the vesting date and accordingly shall be treated as a proper deduction from income.

(4) A payment on account made under this paragraph after the vesting date shall be treated in account as a payment made primarily in or towards discharge of any interest on the compensation that is due at the date of the payment, and the residue thereof, if any, shall be treated in account as a payment on account of the capital of the compensation.

20 (1) If in the case of any valuation region the relevant certificates have not become conclusive under paragraph 17 of this Schedule at the vesting date, the claimant or any person intervening in respect of a holding in the region for which compensation is to be payable may require the Commission to make, at the expiration of each quarter thereafter until the certificates become conclusive, a payment on account under the last preceding paragraph of an amount not less than that specified in this paragraph, and, as from the date of any such requirement, the Commission shall be liable to make payments to the person entitled to the compensation for the holding accordingly.

(2) The amount of a quarterly payment that may be required as aforesaid shall be an amount equal to interest for three months at the rate mentioned in subsection (8) of section seven of this Act on three-quarters of either—

(a) the draft valuation of the holding settled under subparagraph (3) of paragraph 11 of this Schedule, if at the date of the payment that draft has been settled but the certificate relating to the holding has not been sent to the Commission; or

(b) the amount certified, if the certificate has been so sent at that date:

Provided that, if before the beginning of any quarter at the expiration of which a quarterly payment becomes due any payment on account has been made in respect of the holding under the last preceding paragraph otherwise than by way of quarterly payment required as aforesaid, the amount of the quarterly payment shall be reduced by an amount equal to interest for three months at the rate aforesaid on the amount of the said payment on account.

(3) In the case of a holding consisting of a reversion, if at a date on which a quarterly payment becomes due the draft valuation of the holding has not been settled, the amount of that payment shall be an amount equal to one-eighth of—

(a) the rent which became payable to the person entitled to the reversion immediately expectant on the lease, in respect of coal, mines of coal and acquired property and rights comprised therein, during the year ending on the vesting date (or, in the case of a lease that has expired before the vesting date, during the last year of its subsistence), less

(b) the mineral rights duty and royalties welfare levy payable or allowable by that person in respect of that rent;

so however that that amount shall be subject to the reduction mentioned in the proviso to the last preceding sub-paragraph in the case therein mentioned :

Provided that, in a case in which there is reasonable ground for apprehending that, if a payment of the amount so ascertained were made, the aggregate of that payment and of any other payment on account theretofore made might exceed the aggregate of the compensation for the holding and the interest thereon, the Commission may withhold that payment.

(4) In a case in which the proviso to the last preceding sub-paragraph has effect and in a case of a holding other than a reversion, if at a date on which a quarterly payment becomes due the draft valuation of the holding has not been settled, that payment shall be deferred until the draft has been settled and the amount thereof shall be ascertained under sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph.

(5) In this paragraph—

(a) the expression " quarter " means a period of three months beginning on the first day of July, October, January or April;

(b) the references to rent payable to the person entitled to a reversion and to mineral rights duty and royalties welfare levy payable or allowable by that person shall, in their application to a leasehold reversion, be construed as references respectively to the rent which that person was entitled to receive from his lessee less the rent which he was liable to pay to his lessor, and to the duty and levy which he was liable to pay or allow less so much thereof as he was entitled to deduct from the rent payable to his lessor.