Finance Act 1991

Valid from 25/07/1991

55 Purchase and sale of securities: options. U.K.

(1) In section 731 of the Taxes Act 1988 (scope of bondwashing provisions) the following subsections shall be inserted after subsection (4)—

“(4A) For the purposes of subsection (3) above, where a purchase or sale is effected as a direct result of the exercise of a qualifying option, it shall be treated as effected at the current market price if the terms under which the first buyer acquired the option, or, as the case may be, became subject to it, were arm’s length terms.

(4B) For the purposes of subsection (4A) above an option is a “qualifying option if it would be a traded option or financial option as defined in subsection (9) of section 137 of the 1979 Act were the reference in paragraph (b) of that subsection to the time of the abandonment or other disposal a reference to the time of exercise.

(4C) In subsection (4A) above the reference to arm’s length terms is to terms—

(a) agreed between persons dealing at arm’s length, or

(b) not so agreed, but nonetheless such as might reasonably be expected to have been agreed between persons so dealing.”

(2) This section shall apply where the subsequent sale by the first buyer takes place on or after the day on which this Act is passed.