Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

381 Further relief for individuals for losses in early years of trade

(1) Where an individual carrying on a trade sustains a loss in the trade in—

(a) the year of assessment in which it is first carried on by him; or

(b) any of the next three years of assessment;

he may, by notice given within two years after the year of assessment in which the loss is sustained, make a claim for relief under this section.

(2) Subject to section 492 and this section, relief shall be given under subsection (1) above from income tax on an amount of the claimant’s income equal to the amount of the loss, being income for the three years of assessment last preceding that in which the loss is sustained, taking income for an earlier year before income for a later year.

(3) Relief shall not be given for the same loss or the same portion of a loss both under subsection (1) above and under any other provision of the Income Tax Acts.

(4) Relief shall not be given under subsection (1) above in respect of a loss sustained in any period unless it is shown that the trade was carried on throughout that period on a commercial basis and in such a way that profits in the trade (or, where the carrying on of the trade forms part of a larger undertaking, in the undertaking as a whole) could reasonably be expected to be realised in that period or within a reasonable time thereafter.

(5) Relief shall not be given under subsection (1) above in respect of a loss sustained by an individual in a trade if—

(a) at the time when it is first carried on by him he is married to and living with another individual who has previously carried on the trade; and

(b) the loss is sustained in a year of assessment later than the third year of assessment after that in which the trade was first carried on by the other individual.

(6) For the purposes of this section an individual carries on a trade whether he does so solely or in partnership; and (except as respects the computation of profits or gains and losses) an individual continues to carry on the same trade notwithstanding a change in the persons engaged in carrying it on if he is engaged in carrying it on immediately before and immediately after the change.

(7) This section applies, with the necessary modifications, in relation to a profession or vocation as it applies in relation to a trade.