Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

694 Trustees chargeable to income tax at 30 per cent. in certain cases

(1) If in the case of a settlement in respect of which a Schedule 4 direction has effect—

(a) any of the property comprised in the settlement (whether capital or income) is applied otherwise than as mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(a)(i) or (ii) of Schedule 4; or

(b) any of that property on ceasing to be comprised in the settlement devolves otherwise than on any such body or charity as is mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(a)(ii) of that Schedule; or

(c) the direction ceases to have effect;

then, unless subsection (6) below applies, income tax shall be charged under this section in respect of the settlement.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, tax chargeable under this section shall be charged at the rate of 30 per cent. on the whole of the income which has arisen in the relevant period from the property comprised in the settlement and has not been applied (or accumulated and then applied) as mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(a)(i) or (ii) of Schedule 4.

In this subsection “the relevant period” means, if tax has become chargeable under this section in respect of the settlement on a previous occasion, the period since the last occasion and, in any other case, the period since the settlement took effect.

(3) Tax shall not be chargeable under this section in respect of income which by virtue of Chapters I to IV of this Part is treated as income of the settlor; but where income arising in any year of assessment is exempted by this subsection any sums applied in that year as mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(a)(i) or (ii) of Schedule 4 shall be treated as paid primarily out of that income and only as to the excess, if any, out of income not so exempted.

(4) Tax charged under this section shall be in addition to any tax chargeable apart from this section and—

(a) the persons assessable and chargeable with tax under this section shall be the trustees of the settlement; and

(b) all the provisions of the Income Tax Acts relating to assessments and to the collection and recovery of income tax shall, so far as applicable, apply to the charge, assessment, collection and recovery of tax under this section.

(5) Tax shall also be chargeable in accordance with subsections (1) to (4) above if—

(a) any of the property comprised in a settlement to which subsection (1) above applies, on ceasing at any time to be comprised in the settlement, devolves on any such body or charity as is referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection, and

(b) at or before that time an interest under the settlement is or has been acquired for a consideration in money or money’s worth by that or another such body or charity;

but for the purposes of this subsection any acquisition from another such body or charity shall be disregarded.

(6) Tax shall not be chargeable under this section in respect of a settlement on an occasion when the whole of the property comprised in it is transferred tax-free into another settlement; but on the first occasion on which tax becomes chargeable under this section in respect of a settlement (“the current settlement”) comprising property which was previously comprised in another settlement or settlements and has become comprised in the current settlement as a result of, or of a series of, tax-free transfers, the relevant period for the purposes of subsection (2) above shall, as respects that property, be treated as having begun—

(a) on the last occasion on which tax became chargeable under this section in respect of the other settlement or any of the other settlements; or

(b) if there has been no such occasion, when the other settlement or the first of the other settlements took effect.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (6) above, property is transferred tax-free from one settlement into another if either—

(a) it ceases to be comprised in the first-mentioned settlement and becomes comprised in the other settlement in circumstances such that by virtue of paragraph 9(1) of Schedule 4 there is (or, but for paragraph 9(4), there would be) no charge to capital transfer tax or inheritance tax in respect of the property; or

(b) both immediately before and immediately after the transfer it is property in respect of which a Schedule 4 direction has effect.