Finance Act 1996

4 (1) Section 246S of that Act (conditions for treatment as international headquarters company) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (3) (wholly-owned subsidiary of foreign quoted parent company), in paragraph (a), for “wholly owned by” there shall be substituted “ a 100 per cent. subsidiary of ”.

(3) Subsection (8) (extension of subsection (3)) shall cease to have effect.

(4) After subsection (10) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(10A) For the purposes of this section a company is a 100 per cent. subsidiary of another if and so long as it is a body corporate all of whose share capital would fall to be treated for the purposes of section 838 as owned directly or indirectly by the other and that other is a body corporate; but for this purpose references in that section to owning share capital shall be construed in accordance with subsection (12) below.”

(5) Subject to sub-paragraph (6) below, this paragraph has effect in relation to any accounting period ending after 28th November 1995.

(6) Where—

(a) this paragraph has effect under sub-paragraph (5) above in relation to an accounting period in which a dividend is paid, and

(b) the immediately preceding period ended on or before 28th November 1995,

subsection (9) (requirement to be international headquarters company in the period before that in which a dividend is paid) shall have effect in the case of that dividend as if this paragraph also had effect in relation to that immediately preceding period.