Part VI Companies, oil, insurance etc.

Chapter I Companies

Losses attributable to depreciatory transactions

176 Depreciatory transactions within a group.

(1)

This section has effect as respects a disposal of shares in, or securities of, a company (“the ultimate disposal”) if the value of the shares or securities has been materially reduced by a depreciatory transaction effected on or after 31st March 1982; and for this purpose “depreciatory transaction” means—

(a)

any disposal of assets at other than market value by one member of a group of companies to another, or

(b)

any other transaction satisfying the conditions of subsection (2) below,

except that a transaction shall not be treated as a depreciatory transaction to the extent that it consists of a payment which is required to be or has been brought into account, for the purposes of corporation tax on chargeable gains, in computing a chargeable gain or allowable loss accruing to the person making the ultimate disposal.

(2)

The conditions referred to in subsection (1)(b) above are—

(a)

that the company, the shares in which, or securities of which, are the subject of the ultimate disposal, or any 75 per cent. subsidiary of that company, was a party to the transaction, and

(b)

that the parties to the transaction were or included 2 or more companies which at the time of the transaction were members of the same group of companies.

(3)

Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) above, the cancellation of any shares in or securities of one member of a group of companies under section 135 of the M1Companies Act 1985 shall, to the extent that immediately before the cancellation those shares or securities were the property of another member of the group, be taken to be a transaction fulfilling the conditions in subsection (2) above.

(4)

If the person making the ultimate disposal is, or has at any time been, a member of the group of companies referred to in subsection (1) or (2) above, any allowable loss accruing on the disposal shall be reduced to such extent as F1is just and reasonable having regard to the depreciatory transaction, but if the person making the ultimate disposal is not a member of that group when he disposes of the shares or securities, no reduction of the loss shall be made by reference to a depreciatory transaction which took place when that person was not a member of that group.

(5)

F2A reduction under subsection (4) above shall be made on the footing that the allowable loss ought not to reflect any diminution in the value of the company’s assets which was attributable to a depreciatory transaction, but allowance may be made for any other transaction on or after 31st March 1982 which has enhanced the value of the company’s assets and depreciated the value of the assets of any other member of the group.

(6)

If, under subsection (4) above, a reduction is made in an allowable loss, any chargeable gain accruing on a disposal of the shares or securities of any other company which was a party to the depreciatory transaction by reference to which the reduction was made, being a disposal not later than 6 years after the depreciatory transaction, shall be reduced to such extent as F3is just and reasonable having regard to the effect of the depreciatory transaction on the value of those shares or securities at the time of their disposal, but the total amount of any one or more reductions in chargeable gains made by reference to a depreciatory transaction shall not exceed the amount of the reductions in allowable losses made by reference to that depreciatory transaction.

All such adjustments, whether by way of discharge or repayment of tax, or otherwise, as are required to give effect to the provisions of this subsection may be made at any time.

(7)

For the purposes of this section—

(a)

“securities” includes any loan stock or similar security whether secured or unsecured,

(b)

references to the disposal of assets include references to any method by which one company which is a member of a group appropriates the goodwill of another member of the group, F4...

F4(c)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(8)

References in this section to the disposal of shares or securities include references to the occasion of the making of a claim under section 24(2) that the value of shares or securities has become negligible, and references to a person making a disposal shall be construed accordingly.

(9)

In any case where the ultimate disposal is not one to which section 35(2) applies, the references above to 31st March 1982 shall be read as references to 6th April 1965.

177 Dividend stripping.

(1)

The provisions of this section apply where one company (“the first company”) has a holding in another company (“the second company”) and the following conditions are fulfilled—

(a)

that the holding amounts to, or is an ingredient in a holding amounting to, 10 per cent. of all holdings of the same class in the second company,

(b)

that the first company is not a dealing company in relation to the holding,

(c)

that a distribution is or has been made to the first company in respect of the holding, and

(d)

that the effect of the distribution is that the value of the holding is or has been materially reduced.

(2)

Where this section applies in relation to a holding, section 176 shall apply, subject to subsection (3) below, in relation to any disposal of any shares or securities comprised in the holding, whether the disposal is by the first company or by any other company to which the holding is transferred by a transfer to which section F5140A, F6or 171 applies, as if the distribution were a depreciatory transaction and, if the companies concerned are not members of a group of companies, as if they were.

(3)

The distribution shall not be treated as a depreciatory transaction to the extent that it consists of a payment which is required to be or has been brought into account, for the purposes of corporation tax on chargeable gains, in computing a chargeable gain or allowable loss accruing to the person making the ultimate disposal.

(4)

This section shall be construed as one with section 176, and in any case where the ultimate disposal is not one to which section 35(2) applies, the reference in subsection (1)(c) above to a distribution does not include a distribution made before 30th April 1969.

(5)

For the purposes of this section a company is “a dealing company” in relation to a holding if a profit on the sale of the holding would be taken into account in computing the company’s trading profits.

(6)

References in this section to a holding in a company refer to a holding of shares or securities by virtue of which the holder may receive distributions made by the company, but so that—

(a)

a company’s holdings of different classes in another company shall be treated as separate holdings, and

(b)

holdings of securities which differ in the entitlements or obligations they confer or impose shall be regarded as holdings of different classes.

(7)

For the purposes of subsection (1) above—

(a)

all a company’s holdings of the same class in another company are to be treated as ingredients constituting a single holding, and

(b)

a company’s holding of a particular class shall be treated as an ingredient in a holding amounting to 10 per cent. of all holdings of that class if the aggregate of that holding and other holdings of that class held by connected persons amounts to 10 per cent. of all holdings of that class,

and section 286 shall have effect in relation to paragraph (b) above as if, in subsection (7) of that section, after the words “or exercise control of" in each place where they occur there were inserted the words “ or to acquire a holding in ”.

177AF7Restriction on set-off of pre-entry losses.

Schedule 7A to this Act (which makes provision in relation to losses accruing to a company before the time when it becomes a member of a group of companies and losses accruing on assets held by any company at such a time) shall have effect.