Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

91 Cemeteries. U.K.

(1) M1 In computing the [F1 profits] or losses for any period of a trade which consists of or includes the carrying on of a cemetery, there shall be allowed as a deduction—

(a) any capital expenditure incurred by the person engaged in carrying on the trade in providing any land in the cemetery sold during that period for the purpose of interments, and

(b) the appropriate fraction of the residue at the end of that period of the relevant capital expenditure.

(2) M2 Subject to subsection (3) below, the relevant capital expenditure is capital expenditure incurred for the purposes of the trade in question by the person engaged in carrying it on, being—

(a) expenditure on any building or structure other than a dwelling-house, being a building or structure in the cemetery likely to have little or no value when the cemetery is full; and

(b) expenditure incurred in providing land taken up by any such building or structure, and any other land in the cemetery not suitable or adaptable for use for interments and likely to have little or no value when the cemetery is full.

(3) Relevant capital expenditure—

(a) does not include expenditure incurred on buildings or structures which have been destroyed before the beginning of the first period to which subsection (1) above applies in the case of the trade in question; and

(b) of other expenditure incurred before that time, includes only the fraction—

where—

A is the number of grave-spaces which at that time were or could have been made available in the cemetery for sale, and

B is the number already sold.

(4) M3 For the purposes of this section—

(a) the residue of any expenditure at the end of a period is the amount incurred before that time which remains after deducting—

(i) any amount allowed in respect of that expenditure under subsection (1)(b) above in computing the [F1 profits] or losses of the trade for any previous period, and

(ii) if, after the beginning of the first period to which subsection (1) above applies in the case of a trade and before the end of the period mentioned at the beginning of this subsection, any asset representing that expenditure is sold or destroyed, the net proceeds of sale or, as the case may be, any insurance money or other compensation of any description received by the person carrying on the trade in respect of the destruction and any money received by him for the remains of the asset; and

(b) the appropriate fraction of the residue of any expenditure at the end of any period is—

where—

A is the number of grave-spaces in the cemetery sold in the period, and

B is the number of grave-spaces which at the end of the period are or could be made available in the cemetery for sale.

(5) Where in any chargeable period there is a change in the persons engaged in carrying on a trade which consists of or includes the carrying on of a cemetery, any allowance to be made under this section to the persons carrying on the trade after the change shall, whether or not it is to be assumed for other purposes that the trade was discontinued and a new trade set up and commenced, be computed—

(a) as if they had at all times been engaged in carrying on the trade;

(b) as if everything done to or by any of their predecessors in carrying on the trade had been done to or by them; and

(c) without regard to the price paid on any sale on the occasion of any such change.

(6) No expenditure shall be taken into account under both paragraph (a) and paragraph (b) of subsection (1) above, whether for the same or different periods.

(7) This section shall apply in relation to a trade which consists of or includes the carrying on of a crematorium and, in connection therewith, the maintenance of memorial garden plots, as it applies in relation to a trade which consists of or includes the carrying on of a cemetery, but subject to the modifications that—

(a) references to the cemetery or land in the cemetery shall be taken as references to the land which is devoted wholly to memorial garden plots, and

(b) references to grave-spaces shall be taken as references to memorial garden plots, and

(c) references to the sale or use of land for interments shall be taken as references to its sale or use for memorial garden plots.

(8) In this section—

(a) references to the sale of land include references to the sale of a right of interment in land, and to the appropriation of part of a memorial garden in return for a dedication fee or similar payment;

(b) references to capital expenditure incurred in providing land shall be taken as references to the cost of purchase and to any capital expenditure incurred in levelling or draining it or otherwise rendering it suitable for the purposes of a cemetery or a memorial garden; and

(c) the reference in subsection (4)(a)(ii) to subsection (1) above includes a reference to section 141 of the 1970 Act and section 22 of the M4 Finance Act 1952 (which made similar provision to that made by this section).

[F2 (9) Section 532 of the Capital Allowances Act (general rule excluding contributions) shall apply for the purposes of this section as it applies for the purposes of that Act.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 91(1)(4)(a)(i) substituted (31.7.1998) by Finance Act 1998 (c. 36), s. 46(3)(a)(b), Sch. 7 para. 1

F2 S. 91(9) substituted (with effect in accordance with s. 579 of the amending Act) by Capital Allowances Act 2001 (c. 2), Sch. 2 para. 19

Marginal Citations

M1 SOURCE-1970 s. 141(1)

M2 SOURCE-1970 s. 141(2)

M3 SOURCE-1970 s. 141(3)–(8)

M4 1952 c. 33.