M1(1)Where a person (“the former partner”) has ceased to be a member of a partnership on retirement, because of age or ill-health or on death and, under—
(a)the partnership agreement; or
(b)an agreement replacing the partnership agreement or supplementing it or supplementing an agreement replacing it; or
(c)an agreement made with an individual who acquires the whole or part of the business carried on by the partnership;
annual payments are made for the benefit of the former partner or [F1a widow, widower or dependant of the former partner] and are for the purposes of income tax income of the person for whose benefit they are made, the payments shall be treated as earned income of that person, except to the extent that they exceed the limit specified in subsection (2) below.
(2)The limit mentioned in subsection (1) above is 50 per cent. of the average of the amounts which, in the best three of the relevant years of assessment, were the former partner’s shares of the relevant profits or gains; and for this purpose—
(a)the former partner’s share in any year of the relevant profits or gains is, subject to subsection (3) below, so much of the relevant profits or gains as fell to be included in a return of his income for that year; and
(b)the relevant profits or gains are the profits or gains of any trade, profession or vocation on which the partnership or any other partnership of which the former partner was a member was assessed to income tax; and
(c)the relevant years of assessment are the last seven years of assessment in which he was required to devote substantially the whole of his time to acting as a partner in the partnership or those partnerships; and
(d)the best three of the relevant years of assessment are those three of them in which the amounts of his shares of the relevant profits were highest;
but where, in any of the relevant years, the circumstances were such that any of the profits or gains of a partnership were not assessable to income tax, paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) above shall apply as they would apply had those profits or gains been so assessable.
(3)If the retail prices index for the month of December in the last of the seven years referred to in paragraph (c) of subsection (2) above is higher than it was for the month of December in any of the other years referred to in that paragraph, the amount which, for that other year, was the former partner’s share of the relevant profits or gains shall be treated for the purposes of that subsection as increased by the same percentage as the percentage increase in that index.
(4)If the retail prices index for the month of December preceding a year of assessment after that in which the former partner ceased to be a member of the partnership is higher than it was for the month of December in the year of assessment in which he ceased to be such a member, the amount which under subsection (2) above is the limit for the first-mentioned year of assessment shall be treated as increased by the same percentage as the percentage increase in that index.
(5)Where the former partner ceased to be a member of the partnership before the year 1974-75, subsection (4) above shall have effect as if he had ceased to be a member in that year.