Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

240 Set-off of company’s surplus ACT against subsidiary’s liability to corporation tax

(1) Where a company (“the surrendering company”) has paid an amount of advance corporation tax in respect of a dividend or dividends paid by it in an accounting period and the advance corporation tax has not been repaid, it may, on making a claim, surrender the benefit of the whole or any part of that amount—

(a) to any company which was a subsidiary of the surrendering company throughout that accounting period, or

(b) in such proportions as the surrendering company may determine, to any two or more companies which were subsidiaries of the surrendering company throughout that period.

(2) Subject to subsections (4) and (5) below, where the benefit of any amount of advance corporation tax (“the surrendered amount”) is surrendered under this section to a subsidiary, then—

(a) if the advance corporation tax mentioned in subsection (1) above was paid in respect of one dividend only or of dividends all of which were paid on the same date, the subsidiary shall be treated for the purposes of section 239 as having paid an amount of advance corporation tax equal to the surrendered amount in respect of a distribution made by it on the date on which the dividend or dividends were paid;

(b) if the advance corporation tax mentioned in subsection (1) above was paid in respect of dividends paid on different dates, the subsidiary shall be treated for the purposes of section 239 as having paid an amount of advance corporation tax equal to the appropriate part of the surrendered amount in respect of a distribution made by it on each of those dates.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (b) of subsection (2) above “the appropriate part of the surrendered amount”, in relation to any distribution treated as made on the same date as that on which a dividend was paid, means such part of that amount as bears to the whole of it the same proportion as the amount of that dividend bears to the total amount of the dividends mentioned in that paragraph.

(4) No advance corporation tax which a subsidiary is treated as having paid by virtue of subsection (2) above shall be set against the subsidiary’s liability to corporation tax under subsection (3) of section 239; but in determining for the purposes of subsections (3) and (4) of that section what (if any) amount of surplus advance corporation tax there is in any accounting period of a subsidiary, an amount so treated as having been paid shall be set against its liability to corporation tax before any advance corporation tax paid in respect of any distribution made by the subsidiary.

(5) No advance corporation tax which a subsidiary is treated as having paid by virtue of subsection (2) above shall be set against the subsidiary’s liability to corporation tax for any accounting period in which, or in any part of which, it was not a subsidiary of the surrendering company.

(6) Any claim under this section shall be made within six years after the end of the accounting period to which it relates and shall require the consent, notified to the inspector in such form as the Board may require, of the subsidiary or subsidiaries concerned.

(7) No amount of advance corporation tax which has been dealt with under section 239(3) shall be available for the purposes of a claim under this section; and no amount of advance corporation tax the benefit of which has been surrendered under this section shall be treated for the purposes of that section as advance corporation tax paid by the surrendering company.

(8) A payment made by a subsidiary to a surrendering company in pursuance of an agreement between them as respects the surrender of the benefit of an amount of advance corporation tax, being a payment not exceeding that amount—

(a) shall not be taken into account in computing profits or losses of either company for corporation tax purposes; and

(b) shall not for any of the purposes of the Corporation Tax Acts be regarded as a distribution or a charge on income.

(9) References in this section to dividends shall be construed as including references to distributions made on the redemption, repayment or purchase by a company of its own shares, and references to the payment of dividends shall be construed accordingly.

(10) References in this section to a company apply only to bodies corporate resident in the United Kingdom; and, subject to subsection (11) below, for the purposes of this section the question whether one body corporate is the subsidiary of another shall be determined as a question whether it is a 51 per cent. subsidiary of that other, except that that other shall be treated as not being the owner—

(a) of any share capital which it owns directly in a body corporate if a profit on the sale of the shares would be treated as a trading receipt of its trade; or

(b) of any share capital which it owns indirectly, and which is owned directly by a body corporate for which a profit on the sale of the shares would be a trading receipt; or

(c) of any share capital which it owns directly or indirectly in a body corporate not resident in the United Kingdom.

(11) Notwithstanding that, apart from this subsection, one company (“the subsidiary company”) would at any time, by virtue of subsection (10) above, be a subsidiary of another company (“the parent company”) for the purposes of this section, the subsidiary company shall not be treated at that time as a subsidiary for those purposes—

(a) if arrangements are in existence by virtue of which any person has or could obtain, or any persons together have or could obtain, control of the subsidiary company but not of the parent company; and

(b) unless the following conditions are also fulfilled, namely—

(i) that the parent company is beneficially entitled to more than 50 per cent. of any profits available for distribution to equity holders of the subsidiary company; and

(ii) that the parent company would be beneficially entitled to more than 50 per cent. of any assets of the subsidiary company available for distribution to its equity holders on a winding up.

In this subsection “control” has the meaning given by section 840 and “arrangements” means arrangements of any kind, whether in writing or not.

(12) Where by virtue of any enactment a Minister of the Crown or Northern Ireland department has power to give directions to a statutory body as to the disposal of assets belonging to, or to a subsidiary of, that body, the existence of that power shall not be regarded as constituting (or as having at any time constituted) an arrangement within the meaning of subsection (11) above.

(13) Schedule 18 shall have effect for the purposes of subsection (11)(b) above, subject to the following modifications—

(a) for any reference to section 413(7) to (10) there shall be substituted a reference to subsection (11)(b) above; and

(b) paragraph 7(1) shall be omitted and for any reference to the relevant accounting period there shall be substituted a reference to the accounting period current at the time in question.