Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

585 Relief from tax on delayed remittances

(1) A person charged or chargeable for any year of assessment in respect of income from any source with tax which (apart from this section) falls to be computed under Case IV or V of Schedule D, or under Case III of Schedule E, on the amount of income received in the United Kingdom in the basis year for that year of assessment, may by making a claim require that the following provisions of this section shall apply, on showing that the following conditions are satisfied, that is to say—

(a) that of the income so received all or part arose before the basis year but he was unable to transfer it to the United Kingdom before that year; and

(b) subject to subsection (2) below, that that inability was due to the laws of the territory where the income arose, or to executive action of its government, or to the impossibility of obtaining foreign currency in that territory; and

(c) that the inability was not due to any want of reasonable endeavours on his part.

(2) For the purposes of this section, where in any year of assessment a person is granted a pension or increase of pension retrospectively, the amount paid in respect of any previous year of assessment by virtue of the grant shall be treated as income arising in that previous year, whenever it is paid, and he shall be treated as having possessed the source of income from the time as from which the grant has effect; and subsection (1)(b) above shall not apply in relation to any amount so paid, except as respects the period after it becomes payable.

(3) Where a person claims that the provisions of this section shall apply for any year of assessment as respects the income from any source, then for the purposes of income tax—

(a) there shall be deducted from the income received in the United Kingdom in the basis year for that year the amount as respects which the conditions in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of subsection (1) above are satisfied, so far as applicable; but

(b) the part (if any) of that amount arising in each previous year of assessment shall be treated as if it were income received in the United Kingdom in the basis year for that previous year.

(4) Nothing in this section shall alter the year which is to be taken as the basis year for computing tax chargeable for any year of assessment under Case IV or V of Schedule D, and where under subsection (3)(b) above income is treated as received in the United Kingdom in a year which is the basis year for two years of assessment, it shall not by reason thereof be taken into account except in the year in which it arose.

(5) Where—

(a) a person makes a claim under this section for any year of assessment as respects income from any source chargeable under Case IV or V of Schedule D, and

(b) that year is the basis year for computing the tax with which he is chargeable on the income from that source both for that and for the succeeding year of assessment,

tax shall not be chargeable for either of those years of assessment on the amount referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) above (without however being charged a second time by virtue of paragraph (b) of that subsection).

(6) No claim under this section shall be made in respect of any income more than six years after the end of the year of assessment in which the income is received in the United Kingdom.

(7) There shall be made all such adjustments, whether by way of repayment of tax, assessment or otherwise, as may be necessary to give effect to this section, and notwithstanding anything in the Income Tax Acts, any adjustment to give effect to a claim under this section may be made at any time.

(8) A person’s executors or administrators may make any claim under this section which he might have made, if he had not died, and after a person’s death—

(a) any tax paid by him and repayable by virtue of a claim under this section (whoever made the claim) shall be repaid to his executors or administrators; and

(b) any additional tax chargeable by virtue of such a claim shall be assessed and charged upon his executors or administrators and shall be a debt due from and payable out of his estate.

(9) In this section “basis year” means—

(a) in relation to tax chargeable for any year of assessment under Case IV or V of Schedule D in respect of income from any source, the year by reference to which the amount of the income chargeable finally falls to be computed; and

(b) in relation to tax chargeable for any year of assessment under Case III of Schedule E, that year of assessment;

and any reference in this section to a source of income includes a part of a source.