Finance Act 1999

2 U.K. The following section shall be inserted after section 31 (value shifting: tax-free benefits from distributions within groups)—

“31A Asset-holding company leaving the group.

(1) This section applies where profits of a company would be profits arising on a transaction caught by section 31 but for the fact that the condition in section 31(8) is not satisfied.

(2) The profits shall be treated as profits arising on a transaction caught by section 31 if—

(a) subsection (4) or (5) below is satisfied, and

(b) subsection (6) below is satisfied.

(3) In the following provisions of this section—

• “the asset-holding company” means, in relation to any particular time, the company which holds the asset with enhanced value at that time,

• “the disposal group” means the group of companies of which the company which made the section 30 disposal was a member at the time of the disposal (or a group which, by virtue of section 170(10), is treated as the same as that group), and

• “the six-year period” means the period of six years starting with the date of the section 30 disposal.

(4) This subsection is satisfied if at any time during the six-year period an event occurs which consists in the asset-holding company ceasing to be a member of the disposal group otherwise than by reason of the fact that the principal company of that group becomes a member of another group.

(5) This subsection is satisfied if—

(a) at any time during the six-year period the asset-holding company ceases to be a member of the disposal group by reason only of the fact that the principal company of that group becomes a member of another group, and

(b) at any time during that period an event occurs as a result of which there is no member of the disposal group of which the asset-holding company is a 75 per cent. subsidiary or there is no member of that group of which the asset-holding company is an effective 51 per cent. subsidiary.

(6) This subsection is satisfied if no disposal of the asset with enhanced value is treated as having occurred by virtue of section 179 during the period—

(a) beginning with the time of the section 30 disposal, and

(b) ending immediately before the event referred to in subsection (4) or (5)(b) above.

(7) Where section 30 has effect by virtue of this section in relation to a disposal—

(a) a chargeable gain of the differential amount shall be treated as accruing to the chargeable company immediately before the event referred to in subsection (4) or (5)(b) above, and

(b) subsection (5) of section 30 shall not apply.

(8) The “differential amount” is A minus B where—

(a) A is the amount of the allowable loss or chargeable gain which would have accrued on the section 30 disposal if the consideration for the disposal had been increased in accordance with section 30(5),

(b) B is the amount of the allowable loss or chargeable gain which accrued on the section 30 disposal,

(c) an allowable loss is treated as a negative amount, and

(d) a negative result is treated as a result of nil.

(9) The “chargeable company” is—

(a) the company which made the section 30 disposal, or

(b) if that company is no longer a member of the disposal group immediately before the event referred to in subsection (4) or (5)(b) above, the principal company of that group.

(10) A gain which is treated as accruing by virtue of subsection (7) above shall, for the purposes of section 18(3), be treated as a gain accruing on a disposal between the parties to the section 30 disposal made at a time when they are connected persons.”