Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

797 Limits on credit: corporation tax. U.K.

M1 (1) The amount of the credit for foreign tax which under any arrangements is to be allowed against corporation tax in respect of any income or chargeable gain (“the relevant income or gain”) shall not exceed the corporation tax attributable to the relevant income or gain, determined in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) below.

(2) M2 Subject to subsection (3) below, the amount of corporation tax attributable to the relevant income or gain shall be treated as equal to such proportion of the amount of that income or gain as corresponds to the rate of corporation tax payable by the company (before any credit under this Part) on its income or chargeable gains for the accounting period in which the income arises or the gain accrues (“the relevant accounting period”).

(3) Where in the relevant accounting period there is any deduction to be made for charges on income, expenses of management or other amounts which can be deducted from or set against or treated as reducing profits of more than one description—

(a) the company may for the purposes of this section allocate the deduction in such amounts and to such of its profits for that period as it thinks fit; and

(b) the amount of the relevant income or gain shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (2) above as reduced or, as the case may be, extinguished by so much (if any) of the deduction as is allocated to it.

[F1 (3A) Where, in a case to which section 797A does not apply, a company has a non-trading deficit on its loan relationships for the relevant accounting period, then for the purposes of subsection (3) above that deficit shall be treated, to the extent that it is an amount to which a claim under—

(a) subsection (2)(a) of section 83 of the Finance Act 1996 (deficit set against current year profits), or

(b) paragraph 4(2) of Schedule 11 to that Act (set-off of deficits in the case of insurance companies),

relates, as an amount that can in that period be set against profits of any description but can be allocated in accordance with subsection (3) above only to the profits against which it is set off in pursuance of the claim.

(3B) For the purposes of subsection (3) above, where—

(a) section 797A does not apply in the case of any company, and

(b) any amount is carried forward to the relevant accounting period in pursuance of a claim under subsection (2)(d) of section 83 of the Finance Act 1996 F2 . . . ,

then that amount must be allocated to non-trading profits of the company for that period (so far as they are sufficient for the purpose) and cannot be allocated to any other profits.]

(4) Where in accordance with section 239 any advance corporation tax falls to be set against the company’s liability to corporation tax on its profits (within the meaning of that section) for the relevant accounting period—

(a) so far as that liability relates to the relevant income or gain, it shall be taken to be reduced by the amount of the credit for foreign tax attributable to that income or gain, as determined in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) above; and

(b) the amount of advance corporation tax which may be set against that liability, so far as it relates to the relevant income or gain, shall not exceed whichever is the lower of the limits specified in subsection (5) below;

and section 239(2) shall have effect in relation only to so much of the profits of the company chargeable to corporation tax for that period as does not include the relevant income or gain.

(5) In relation to an amount of income or gain in respect of which the company’s liability to corporation tax is taken to be reduced as mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (4) above, the limits referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection are—

(a) the limit which would apply under section 239(2) if that amount of income or gain were the company’s only income or gain for the relevant accounting period; and

(b) the amount of corporation tax for which, after taking account of that reduction, the company is liable in respect of that amount of income or gain.

[F3 (6) In this section “non-trading profits” has the same meaning as in paragraph 4 of Schedule 8 to the Finance Act 1996.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 797(3A)(3B) inserted (with effect in accordance with s. 105(1) of the amending Act) by Finance Act 1996 (c. 8), Sch. 14 para. 42(1) (with Sch. 15)

F2 Words in s. 797(3B)(b) repealed (retrospectively) by Finance Act 1998 (c. 36), s. 82(2)(a)(4), Sch. 27 Pt. 3(17), Note

F3 S. 797(6) inserted (with effect in accordance with s. 105(1) of the amending Act) by Finance Act 1996 (c. 8), Sch. 14 para. 42(2) (with Sch. 15)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 797(4) applied (1.7.1997) by The Manufactured Dividends (Tax) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/993), regs. 1, 9(1)

Marginal Citations

M1 Source—1970 s.505; 1972 s.100(1), (3); 1984 s.53(1)

M2 Source—1972 s.100(4)-(6A); 1984 s.53(1); 1986 s.49; 1987 (No.2) s.77