Finance (No.2) Act 1987

90 Corporation tax to be payable without assessment.

(1) With respect to accounting periods ending after the appointed day, corporation tax shall be payable without the making of an assessment and, with respect to such periods—

(a) in subsection (3) of section 243 of the Taxes Act (which provides for assessments by reference to accounting periods) for the words from “assessments” to “a company” there shall be substituted “corporation tax shall be computed and chargeable (and any assessments shall accordingly be made)”; and

(b) in subsection (4) of that section (which specifies the date when corporation tax assessed for an accounting period is to be paid) the word “assessed” and the words from “or if it is later” onwards shall be omitted and for the words “paid within” there shall be substituted “due and payable on the day following the expiry of”.

(2) With respect to loans or advances made (or treated as made) in an accounting period ending after the appointed day, in subsection (1) of section 286 of the Taxes Act (loans to participators etc.) for the words “assessed on and recoverable” there shall be substituted “due”.

(3) With respect to loans or advances made (or treated as made) as mentioned in subsection (2) above, for subsection (4) of the said section 286 there shall be substituted—

“(4) Tax due by virtue of this section shall be due and payable within fourteen days after the end of the accounting period in which the loan or advance was made”.

(4) Notwithstanding that, by virtue of the preceding provisions of this section, any corporation tax (or any amount due as if it were corporation tax) is due without the making of an assessment, no proceedings for collecting that tax (or other amount) shall be instituted—

(a) unless it has been assessed; and

(b) until the expiry of the period of thirty days beginning on the date on which the notice of assessment is issued;

and the reference in this subsection to proceedings for collecting tax or any other amount includes a reference to proceedings by way of distraint or poinding for that tax or other amount.

(5) If, with respect to any accounting period,—

(a) a company has paid an amount of corporation tax without the making of an assessment; and

(b) at any time before an assessment to corporation tax for the period becomes final, the company has grounds for believing that, by reason of a change in the circumstances of the case since the tax was paid, the amount paid exceeds the company’s probable liability for corporation tax,

the company may, by notice in writing given to the inspector on or after the date which, under section 87 above, is the material date in relation to that tax, make a claim for the repayment to the company of the amount of that excess; and a notice under this subsection shall state the amount which the company considers should be repaid and the grounds referred to in paragraph (b) above.

(6) If, apart from this subsection, a claim would fall to be made under subsection (5) above at a time when the company concerned has appealed against such an assessment as is referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection but that appeal has not been finally determined, that subsection shall have effect as if, for the words from “make a claim” to “excess”, there were substituted “apply to the Commissioners to whom the appeal stands referred for a determination of the amount which should be repaid to the company pending a determination of the company’s liability for the accounting period in question”; and such an application shall be determined in the same way as the appeal.

(7) Where, on an appeal against an assessment to corporation tax, a company makes an application under subsection (3) or subsection (4) of section 55 of the Management Act (postponement of tax charged but not paid etc.) that application may be combined with an application under subsections (5) and (6) above (relating to tax which was paid prior to the assessment).