Finance Act 1994

135 Prevention of avoidance of corporation tax

(1) In the Taxes Act 1988, immediately before section 768 there shall be inserted—

“767A Change in company ownership: corporation tax

(1) Where it appears to the Board that—

(a) there has been a change in the ownership of a company (“the tax-payer company”),

(b) any corporation tax assessed on the tax-payer company for an accounting period beginning before the change remains unpaid at any time after the relevant date, and

(c) any of the three conditions mentioned below is fulfilled,

any person mentioned in subsection (2) below may be assessed by the Board and charged (in the name of the tax-payer company) to an amount of corporation tax in accordance with this section.

(2) The persons are—

(a) any person who at any time during the relevant period before the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company had control of it;

(b) any company of which the person mentioned in paragraph (a) above has at any time had control within the period of three years before that change.

(3) In subsection (2) above, “the relevant period” means—

(a) the period of three years before the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company; or

(b) if during the period of three years before that change (“the later change”) there was a change in the ownership of the tax-payer company (“the earlier change”), the period elapsing between the earlier change and the later change.

(4) The first condition is that—

(a) at any time during the period of three years before the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company the activities of a trade or business of that company cease or the scale of those activities become small or negligible; and

(b) there is no significant revival of those activities before that change occurs.

(5) The second condition is that at any time after the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company, but under arrangements made before that change, the activities of a trade or business of that company cease or the scale of those activities become small or negligible.

(6) The third condition is that—

(a) at any time during the period of six years beginning three years before the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company there is a major change in the nature or conduct of a trade or business of that company;

(b) there is a transfer or there are transfers of assets of the tax-payer company to a person mentioned in subsection (7) below or to any person under arrangements which enable any of those assets or any assets representing those assets to be transferred to a person mentioned in subsection (7) below;

(c) that transfer occurs or those transfers occur during the period of three years before the change in the ownership of the tax-payer company or after that change but under arrangements made before that change; and

(d) the major change mentioned in paragraph (a) above is attributable to that transfer or those transfers.

(7) The persons are—

(a) any person mentioned in subsection (2)(a) above; and

(b) any person connected with him.

(8) The amount of tax charged in an assessment made under this section must not exceed the amount of the tax which, at the time of that assessment, remains unpaid by the tax-payer company.

(9) For the purposes of this section the relevant date is the date six months from the date on which the corporation tax is assessed as mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above.

(10) Any assessment made under this section shall not be out of time if made within three years from the date on which the liability of the tax-payer company to corporation tax for the accounting period mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above is finally determined.

767B Change of company ownership: supplementary

(1) In relation to corporation tax assessed under section 767A—

(a) section 86 of the Management Act (interest on overdue tax), in so far as it has effect in relation to accounting periods ending on or before 30th September 1993, and

(b) section 87A of that Act (corresponding provision for corporation tax due for accounting periods ending after that date),

shall have effect as if the references in section 86 to the reckonable date and in section 87A to the date when the tax becomes due and payable were, respectively, references to the date which is the reckonable date in relation to the tax-payer company and the date when the tax became due and payable by the tax-payer company.

(2) A payment in pursuance of an assessment under section 767A shall not be allowed as a deduction in computing any income, profits or losses for any tax purposes; but any person making such a payment shall be entitled to recover an amount equal to the payment from the tax-payer company.

(3) In subsection (2) above the reference to a payment in pursuance of an assessment includes a reference to a payment of interest under section 86 or 87A of the Management Act (as they have effect by virtue of subsection (1) above).

(4) For the purposes of section 767A, “control”, in relation to a company, shall be construed in accordance with section 416 as modified by subsections (5) and (6) below.

(5) In subsection (2)(a) for “the greater part of” there shall be substituted “50 per cent. of”.

(6) For subsection (3) there shall be substituted—

“(3) Where two or more persons together satisfy any of the conditions in subsection (2) above and do so by reason of having acted together to put themselves in a position where they will in fact satisfy the condition in question, each of those persons shall be treated as having control of the company.”

(7) In section 767A(6) “a major change in the nature or conduct of a trade or business” includes any change mentioned in any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of section 245(4); and also includes a change falling within any of those paragraphs which is achieved gradually as the result of a series of transfers.

(8) In section 767A(6) “transfer”, in relation to an asset, includes any disposal, letting or hiring of it, and any grant or transfer of any right, interest or licence in or over it, or the giving of any business facilities with respect to it.

(9) Section 839 shall apply for the purposes of section 767A(7).

(10) Subsection (9) of section 768 shall apply for the purposes of section 767A as it applies for the purposes of section 768.”

(2) Section 769 (rules for ascertaining change of ownership of company) shall be amended as follows.

(3) In subsections (1), (2) and (5) for the words “sections 768”, in each place where they occur, there shall be substituted “sections 767A, 768”.

(4) After subsection (2) there shall be inserted—

“(2A) Where—

(a) persons, whether company members or not, possess extraordinary rights or powers under the articles of association or under any other document regulating the company, and

(b) because of that fact ownership of the ordinary share capital may not be an appropriate test of whether there has been a change in the ownership of the company,

then, in considering whether there has been a change in the ownership of the company for the purposes of section 767A, holdings of all kinds of share capital, including preference shares, or of any particular category of share capital, or voting power or any other kind of special power may be taken into account instead of ordinary share capital.”

(5) After subsection (8) there shall be inserted—

“(9) Subsection (8) above shall not apply in relation to section 767A.”

(6) The amendments made by this section shall have effect in relation to any change in ownership occurring on or after 30th November 1993 other than a change occurring in pursuance of a contract entered into before that day.