(1)After section 767A of the Taxes Act 1988 there shall be inserted the following section—
(1)Where it appears to the Board that—
(a)there has been a change in the ownership of a company (“the transferred company"),
(b)any corporation tax relating to an accounting period ending on or after the change has been assessed on the transferred company or an associated company,
(c)that tax remains unpaid at any time more than six months after it was assessed, and
(d)the condition set out in subsection (2) below is fulfilled,
any person mentioned in subsection (4) below may be assessed by the Board and charged to an amount of corporation tax not exceeding the amount remaining unpaid.
(2)The condition is that it would be reasonable (apart from this section) to infer, from either or both of—
(a)the terms of any transactions entered into in connection with the change, and
(b)the other circumstances of the change and of any such transactions,
that at least one of those transactions was entered into by one or more of its parties on the assumption, as regards a potential tax liability, that that liability would be unlikely to be met, or met in full, if it were to arise.
(3)In subsection (2) above the reference to a potential tax liability is a reference to a liability to pay corporation tax which—
(a)in circumstances which were reasonably foreseeable at the time of the change in ownership, or
(b)in circumstances the occurrence of which is something of which there was at that time a reasonably foreseeable risk,
would or might arise from an assessment made, after the change in ownership, on the transferred company or an associated company (whether or not a particular associated company).
(4)The persons mentioned in subsection (1) above are—
(a)any person who at any time during the relevant period had control of the transferred company;
(b)any company of which the person mentioned in paragraph (a) above has at any time had control within the period of three years before the change in the ownership of the transferred company.
(5)In subsection (4) above, “the relevant period” means—
(a)the period of three years before the change in the ownership of the transferred company; or
(b)if during the period of three years before that change (“the later change") there was a change in the ownership of the transferred company (“the earlier change"), the period elapsing between the earlier change and the later change.
(6)For the purposes of this section a transaction is entered into in connection with a change in the ownership of a company if—
(a)it is the transaction, or one of the transactions, by which that change is effected; or
(b)it is entered into as part of a series of transactions, or scheme, of which transactions effecting the change in ownership have formed or will form a part.
(7)For the purposes of this section—
(a)references to a scheme are references to any scheme, arrangements or understanding of any kind whatever, whether or not legally enforceable, involving a single transaction or two or more transactions;
(b)it shall be immaterial in determining whether any transactions have formed or will form part of a series of transactions or scheme that the parties to any of the transactions are different from the parties to another of the transactions; and
(c)the cases in which any two or more transactions are to be taken as forming part of a series of transactions or scheme shall include any case in which it would be reasonable to assume that one or more of them—
(i)would not have been entered into independently of the other or others; or
(ii)if entered into independently of the other or others, would not have taken the same form or been on the same terms.
(8)In this section references, in relation to the transferred company and an assessment to tax, to an associated company are references to any compnay (whenever formed) which, at the time of the assessment or at an earlier time after the change in ownership—
(a>has control of the transferred company;
(b)is a company of which the transferred company has control; or
(c)is a company under the control of the same person or persons as the transferred company.
(9)A person assessed and charged to tax under this section shall be assessed and charged in the name of the company by whom the tax to which the assessment relates remains unpaid.
(10)Any assessment made under this section shall not be out of time if made within three years from the date of the final determination of the liability of the company by whom the tax remains unpaid to corporation tax for the accounting period for which that tax was assessed.”
(2)Subsection (1) above has effect in relation to changes in ownership occurring on or after 2nd July 1997 other than any change occurring in pursuance of a contract entered into before 2nd July 1997.