Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

577 Business entertaining expenses

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section—

(a) no deduction shall be made in computing profits or gains chargeable to tax under Schedule A or Schedule D for any expenses incurred in providing business entertainment, and such expenses shall not be included in computing any expenses of management in respect of which relief may be given under the Tax Acts;

(b) no deduction for expenses so incurred shall be made from emoluments chargeable to tax under Schedule E; and

(c) for the purposes of Chapter II of Part I of the 1968 Act and Chapter I of Part III of the [1971 c. 68.] Finance Act 1971, the use of any asset for providing business entertainment shall be treated as use otherwise than for the purposes of trade.

(2) Subsection (1) above shall not apply to expenses incurred in, or the use of an asset for, the provision by a person carrying on a trade in the United Kingdom (“a United Kingdom trader”), or by a member of his staff, of entertainment for an overseas customer of that person, being entertainment of a kind and on a scale which is reasonable having regard to all the circumstances.

(3) The expenses to which paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above applies include, in the case of any person, any sums paid by him to, or on behalf of, or placed by him at the disposal of a member of his staff exclusively for the purpose of defraying expenses incurred or to be incurred by him in providing business entertainment, but where—

(a) any such sum falls to be included in his emoluments chargeable to tax under Schedule E; and

(b) the deduction or inclusion of that sum as mentioned in that paragraph falls to be disallowed in whole or in part by virtue of this section;

paragraph (b) of that subsection shall not preclude the deduction of any expenses defrayed out of that sum.

(4) Where by virtue of subsection (2) above a person claims to deduct or include any expenses as mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) above or claims any allowance under the provisions mentioned in paragraph (c) of that subsection he shall, if the inspector so requires, furnish particulars of the entertainment in question and of the person for whom it was provided.

(5) For the purposes of this section “business entertainment” means entertainment (including hospitality of any kind) provided by a person, or by a member of his staff, in connection with a trade carried on by that person, but does not include anything provided by him for bona fide members of his staff unless its provision for them is incidental to its provision also for others.

(6) For the purposes of this section “overseas customer” means, in relation to any United Kingdom trader—

(a) any person who is not ordinarily resident nor carrying on a trade in the United Kingdom and avails himself, or may be expected to avail himself, in the course of a trade carried on by him outside the United Kingdom, of any goods, services or facilities which it is the trade of the United Kingdom trader to provide; and

(b) any person who is not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and is acting, in relation to such goods, services or facilities, on behalf of an overseas customer within paragraph (a) above or on behalf of any government or public authority of a country outside the United Kingdom.

(7) In this section—

(a) any reference to expenses incurred in, or to the use of an asset for, providing entertainment includes a reference to expenses incurred in, or to the use of an asset for, providing anything incidental thereto;

(b) references to a trade include references to any business, profession or vocation; and

(c) references to the members of a person’s staff are references to persons employed by that person, directors of a company or persons engaged in the management of a company being for this purpose deemed to be persons employed by it.

(8) This section shall apply in relation to the provision of a gift as it applies in relation to the provision of entertainment, except that it shall not by virtue of this subsection apply in relation to the provision for any person of a gift consisting of an article incorporating a conspicuous advertisement for the donor, being an article—

(a) which is not food, drink, tobacco or a token or voucher exchangeable for goods; and

(b) the cost of which to the donor, taken together with the cost to him of any other such articles given by him to that person in the same year, does not exceed £10.

(9) Subsection (8) above shall not preclude the deduction, in computing profits or gains under Case I or II of Schedule D, of expenditure incurred in making a gift to a body of persons or trust established for charitable purposes only; and for the purposes of this subsection the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England and the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund shall each be treated as such a body of persons.

(10) Nothing in this section shall be taken as precluding the deduction of expenses incurred in, or any claim for capital allowances in respect of the use of an asset for, the provision by any person of anything which it is his trade to provide, and which is provided by him in the ordinary course of that trade for payment or, with the object of advertising to the public generally, gratuitously.