Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

298 Provisions supplementary to sections 293 and 297

(1) For the purposes of sections 293(9) and 297 a person has a controlling interest in a trade—

(a) in the case of a trade carried on by a company, if—

(i) he controls the company;

(ii) the company is a close company and he or an associate of his is a director of the company and the beneficial owner of, or able directly or through the medium of other companies or by any other indirect means to control, more than 30 per cent. of the ordinary share capital of the company; or

(iii) not less than half of the trade could in accordance with section 344(2) be regarded as belonging to him;

(b) in any other case, if he is entitled to not less than half of the assets used for, or the income arising from, the trade.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above, there shall be attributed to any person any rights or powers of any other person who is an associate of his.

(3) References in this section and section 297 to a trade shall be construed without regard to so much of the definition of “trade” in section 832(1) as relates to adventures or concerns in the nature of trade; but the foregoing provisions do not affect the construction of references in section 297(2)(g) or subsection (1) above to a trade carried on by a person other than the company and those references shall be construed as including a reference to any business, profession or vocation.

(4) The Treasury may by order amend section 297 and this section, except in relation to shares issued before 19th March 1986, in such manner as they consider expedient.

(5) In section 297—

• “film” means an original master negative of a film, an original master film disc or an original master film tape;

• “oil rig” means any ship which is an offshore installation for the purposes of the [1971 c. 61.] Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971;

• “pleasure craft” means any ship of a kind primarily used for sport or recreation;

• “property development” means the development of land, by a company which has, or at any time has had, an interest in the land (within the meaning of section 294(5)), with the sole or main object of realising a gain from disposing of the land when developed; and

• “sound recording” means, in relation to a film, its sound track, original master audio disc or, as the case may be, original master audio tape.

(6) Section 297 shall have effect in relation to shares issued before 19th March 1986 subject to the following modifications—

(a) in subsection (2) the words “or those activities when taken together amount” shall be omitted;

(b) subsection (2)(h) shall not apply unless the shares were issued after 19th March 1985;

(c) subsection (2)(j) shall not apply unless the shares were issued after 13th March 1984;

(d) in subsection (3) the words in paragraph (a) “to members of the general public for their use or consumption” and paragraph (c) shall be omitted; and

(e) subsections (6) and (7) shall be omitted;

and in relation to shares issued after 18th March 1986 section 297(2) shall have effect with the omission of paragraphs (h) and (j).

(7) Section 297(2) shall have effect so far as it relates to oil extraction only in relation to shares issued after 25th July 1986.

(8) Section 297(4) shall have effect in relation to shares issued before 17th March 1987 with the omission of paragraph (a)(ii), together with the word “or” immediately before it, (but not the word “and” at the end of it) and the words in paragraph (b) “in that period” in the second place where they appear.