Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Excluded activities: receipt of royalties or licence fees

19 (1) This paragraph supplements paragraph 16(e) (receipt of royalties or licence fees).

(2) If the requirement of sub-paragraph (3) is met, a trade is not to be regarded as consisting in the carrying of excluded activities within paragraph 16(e) as a result only of its consisting to a substantial extent in the receiving of royalties or licence fees.

(3) The requirement of this sub-paragraph is that the royalties or licence fees (or all of them except for a part that is not substantial in terms of value) are attributable to the exploitation of relevant intangible assets.

(4) For this purpose a “relevant intangible asset” is an intangible asset the whole or greater part of which (in terms of value) has been created—

(a) by the company carrying on the trade, or

(b) by a company which, for the whole of the period during which it created the asset, was—

(i) the parent company of the company carrying on the trade, or

(ii) a qualifying subsidiary of that parent company.

(5) In the case of an intangible asset which is intellectual property, any reference in sub-paragraph (4) to the creation of the asset by a company is to its creation in circumstances in which the right to exploit it vests in the company (either alone or jointly with others).

(6) In sub-paragraph (5) “intellectual property” means—

(a) any patent, trade mark, registered design, copyright, design right, performer’s right or plant breeder’s right; or

(b) any rights under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom which correspond or are similar to those falling within paragraph (a).

(7) In this paragraph “intangible asset” means any asset which falls to be treated as an intangible asset in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice.