Finance Act 1996

Discounted securities where companies have a connection

17 (1) This paragraph applies as respects any accounting period (“the relevant period”) where—

(a) a debtor relationship of a company (“the issuing company”) is represented by a relevant discounted security issued by that company;

(b) the benefit of that security is available to another company at any time in that period;

(c) for that period there is a connection between the issuing company and the other company; and

(d) credits representing the full amount of the discount that is referable to that period are not for any accounting period brought into account for the purposes of this Chapter in respect of the corresponding creditor relationship.

(2) The debits falling in the case of the issuing company to be brought into account for the purposes of this Chapter in respect of the loan relationship shall be adjusted so that every debit relating to the amount of the discount that is referable to the relevant period is brought into account for the accounting period in which the security is redeemed, instead of for the relevant period.

(3) References in this paragraph to the amount of the discount that is referable to the relevant period are references to the amount relating to the difference between—

(a) the issue price of the security, and

(b) the amount payable on redemption,

which (apart from this paragraph) would for the relevant period be brought into account for the purposes of this Chapter in the case of the issuing company.

(4) In this paragraph “relevant discounted security” has the same meaning as in Schedule 13 to this Act; and the provisions of that Schedule shall apply for the purposes of this paragraph for determining the difference between the issue price of a security and the amount payable on redemption as they apply for the purposes of paragraph 3(3) of that Schedule.

(5) For the purposes of this paragraph there is a connection between one company and another for the relevant period if (subject to the following provisions of this paragraph)—

(a) there is a time in that period, or in the period of two years before the beginning of that period, when one of the companies has had control of the other; or

(b) there is a time in that period, or in those two years, when both the companies have been under the control of the same person.

(6) Two companies which have at any time been under the control of the same person shall not, by virtue of that fact, be taken for the purposes of this paragraph to be companies between whom there is a connection if the person was the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, a government department, a Northern Ireland department, a foreign sovereign power or an international organisation.

(7) Section 88 of this Act shall apply for the purposes of this paragraph in the case of a debtor relationship of a company represented by a relevant discounted security as it would apply for the purposes of section 87 of this Act in the case of the corresponding creditor relationship of the company holding that security and, accordingly, as if—

(a) the reference to section 87 of this Act in section 88(4)(b) were a reference to this paragraph; and

(b) section 88(5) were omitted.

(8) For the purposes of this paragraph the benefit of a security is available to a company if—

(a) that security, or any entitlement to rights attached to it, is beneficially owned by that company; or

(b) that company is indirectly entitled, by reference to a series of loan transactions, to the benefit of any rights attached to the security.

(9) Subsections (2) to (6) of section 416 of the Taxes Act 1988 (meaning of “control”) shall apply for the purposes of this paragraph as they apply for the purposes of Part XI of that Act.