Finance Act 1965

85 Transitional relief for companies paying dividends out of pre-1966-67 profits.

(1) With a view to taking account in relation to distributions made by a company in or after the year 1966-67 (but not after the year 1968-69) of income tax borne by the company in earlier years of assessment, a company resident in the United Kingdom shall be entitled to be treated for purposes of section 48 of this Act as if the provisions of that section about the carry forward from one year to another of a surplus of franked investment income applied to a carry forward from the year 1965-66, and as if in that year the company had had a surplus of franked investment income of an amount computed in accordance with this section (" the notional surplus ").

(2) Subject to subsections (7) and (8) below, the notional surplus shall be whichever is the greater of—

(a) an amount (" the one year surplus ") calculated so that income tax on it at the standard rate for the year 1965-66 may represent, according to the rules prescribed by this section, the proportion referable to the company's income arising in that year which is subject to income tax and profits tax of the extra charge to those taxes as compared with a charge to corporation tax, but so that the one year surplus shall not exceed the amount on which the repayments of income tax under this section would equal the income tax paid by the company on distributions made by it in the year 1966-67;

(b) an amount ("the three year surplus") calculated in accordance with the rules prescribed by this section to represent the excess, adjusted for any relief under section 84 of this Act, of the company's dividends (other than capital dividends) in the years 1966-67, 1967-68 and 1968-69 over the distributable profits of the financial years 1966, 1967 and 1968, but so that the three-year surplus shall not exceed the amount on which the repayments of income tax under this section would equal the income tax ultimately borne by the company in the years 1963-64, 1964-65 and 1965-66.

(3) For the calculation of the one year surplus, the extra charge to income tax and profits tax as compared with a charge to corporation tax for the year 1965-66 shall be arrived at (subject to subsection (4) below) by aggregating—

(a) the income tax (at the standard rate or the net United Kingdom rate, as the case may be) deducted from dividends received by the company in the year from companies resident in the United Kingdom, in so far as that tax is ultimately borne by the company; and

(b) the profits tax charged on the company for any charge able accounting period or part of a chargeable accounting period falling within the year (or, if the liability to profits tax was affected by a notice under section 22 of the [1937 c. 54.] Finance Act 1937 (groups of companies), the tax which would have been so charged but for the notice); and

(c) the appropriate fraction of the income tax ultimately borne by the company on income arising in the year other than the tax deducted from dividends received from companies resident in the United Kingdom, the appropriate fraction being that obtained by dividing by the standard rate of income tax for the year the difference between that rate and the rate of corporation tax for the financial year 1965 ;

and the proportion of this referable to the company's income arising in the year which is subject to income tax and profits tax shall be taken to be the fraction obtained by dividing the aggregate amount of the income tax at (a) and (c) above by the sum of that amount and the amount of the corporation tax charged on the company for the financial year 1965.

The reference in paragraph (c) above to income arising in the year shall, where income tax is to be computed by reference to the amount received in the United Kingdom, be construed as a reference to the income so received.

(4) Where the dividends received by the company in the year 1965-66 include dividends from a member of the same group of companies, and that member pays in the year a gross amount in dividends greater than its standard amount, then there shall be excluded from the dividends taken into account under subsection (3) (a) above a part of the dividends received from that member which bears to the whole the same proportion as the excess bears to all the dividends paid by that member in the year 1965-66:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply unless the gross amount of the dividends received by the company in the year 1965-66 from members of the same group of companies exceeds one-third of the gross amount of the dividends received by the company in its standard period from companies then being members of the same group of companies (or, if the standard period is less than three years, an amount bearing to the dividends last mentioned the same proportion as one year bears to the standard period), and where any dividends would fall to be excluded under this subsection, the company may elect that the exclusion shall be of such part of the dividends received from members of the same group as is equal to the excess referred to in this proviso.

This subsection shall be construed in accordance with section 83 of and Schedule 19 to this Act.

(5) In arriving at the amount ultimately borne by the company of the income tax at (3)(c) and (c) above, the deduction of tax by the company under section 184 (dividends) of the [1952 c. 10.] Income Tax Act 1952 shall not be treated as reducing the tax ultimately borne by the company, but any tax otherwise charged against any person by the company and any relief under section 341 of that Act (relief for trade loss against general income) shall be set, as far as may be, against income tax borne by the company in the year other than the tax at 3(a) or (c), then against the tax at (3)(c), then against the tax at (3)(a).

(6) For the calculation of the three year surplus—

(a) the dividends in the three years of assessment shall be taken before deduction of income tax, and (except in the calculation under paragraph (c) below) shall be taken to include any amount treated under section 83 of this Act as a dividend paid in the year 1966-67 ;

(b) the distributable profits for the three financial years shall be arrived at by taking the profits on which corporation tax is charged for those years, less the corporation tax so charged and any credit for foreign tax allowed against corporation tax, and less the amount of any directors' remuneration not deductible in computing those profits, and adding—

(i) franked investment income and group income received in those years ;

(ii) the amount of any deductions made in assessing that tax for investment allowances or scientific research allowances (on the basis that deductions for capital allowances are referred to other allowances in priority to investment or scientific research allowances), and of any deductions so made for losses, allowances or expenses of management of any period falling outside those years;

(c) the excess of the dividends at (a) above over the distributable profits at (b) above shall be adjusted for relief under section 84 by—

(i) finding the balance of those dividends that remains after deduction of the amount on which income tax at the standard rate for the year 1965-66 would equal the aggregate relief under section 84 for the three years of assessment; and

(ii) reducing the excess in the proportion which that balance bears to the actual dividends ;

(d) the income tax ultimately borne by the company in the years 1963-64, 1964-65 and 1965-66 shall be taken to be the amount borne by it in respect of its income by deduction or otherwise (at the standard rate or at the net United Kingdom rate), after deduction of all reliefs and of all tax charged in any of those years against any other person under section 184 of the [1952 c. 10.] Income Tax Act 1952 or otherwise.

(7) Where a company is wound up, the three year surplus shall be computed by reference to the period ending with its last accounting period, if that ends before the end of the financial year 1968.

(8) If in the case of any company the income tax at (3)(a) and (c) above is not greater than the corporation tax with which the company is charged for the financial year 1965, any one year surplus shall be disregarded, and the notional surplus shall be taken to be the three year surplus (if any).

(9) Relief may be claimed and allowed under this section by reference to any one year surplus, notwithstanding that the notional surplus may fall to be finally determined by reference to a three year surplus.

(10) Part I of Schedule 12 to this Act shall have effect in relation to claims for relief under this section as it has effect in relation to other claims made for purposes of section 48 of this Act, except that a claim under this section may be made in relation to a one year surplus before the time otherwise allowed under the said Part I and, if made before the passing of an Act fixing the rate of corporation tax for the financial year 1965, may be determined (subject to later adjustment if need be) in accordance with any Resolution for fixing that rate which may have been passed by the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Commons and agreed to by the House.

(11) In a case where section 350 of the [1952 c. 10.] Income Tax Act 1952 applies, the tax deducted from a dividend shall be deemed for purposes of this section to be tax at the net United Kingdom rate, for the purpose of reckoning either the tax borne by the recipient or the tax charged against another person by the company paying the dividend; and the amount charged against another person by deduction of tax from any other payment shall for the purposes of this section, in a case to which section 350(2) applies, be taken not to include the tax chargeable under section 170 of that Act by virtue of section 350(2).

(12) A company claiming relief under this section may, if the greater part of its undertaking consists in the ownership or operation of ships, elect that in the application to it of subsection (2) (b) above there shall be substituted for the income tax ultimately borne by the company in the years 1963-64, 1964-65 and 1965-66 the income tax ultimately borne by it in a period ending with the year 1965-66, but beginning with such year of assessment earlier than the year 1963-64, but not earlier than the year 1956-57, as may be specified in the election ; and subsection (6) (b) shall then apply to the years comprised in that period as it is expressed to apply to the years 1963-64, 1964-65 and 1965-66.