The following section shall be inserted after section 477A of the Taxes Act 1988—

“477B Building societies: incidental costs of issuing qualifying shares.

(1)

In computing for the purposes of corporation tax the income of a building society from the trade carried on by it, there shall be allowed as a deduction, if subsection (2) below applies, the incidental costs of obtaining finance by means of issuing shares in the society which are qualifying shares.

(2)

This subsection applies if any amount payable in respect of the shares by way of dividend or interest is deductible in computing for the purposes of corporation tax the income of the society from the trade carried on by it.

(3)

In subsection (1) above, “the incidental costs of obtaining finance means expenditure on fees, commissions, advertising, printing and other incidental matters (but not including stamp duty), being expenditure wholly and exclusively incurred for the purpose of obtaining the finance (whether or not it is in fact obtained), or of providing security for it or of repaying it.

(4)

This section shall not be construed as affording relief—

(a)

for any sums paid in consequence of, or for obtaining protection against, losses resulting from changes in the rate of exchange between different currencies, or

(b)

for the cost of repaying qualifying shares so far as attributable to their being repayable at a premium or to their having been issued at a discount.

(5)

In this section—

“dividend has the same meaning as in section 477A, and

“qualifying share has the same meaning as in section 64(3E) of the Finance Act 1984.”