Part 5Miscellaneous income
Chapter 2Receipts from intellectual property
Sales of patent rights
593Death of seller
1
If a seller who is liable to income tax under section 587 dies, any amounts which would have been chargeable in later tax years under—
a
section 590(2) or (4) (UK resident sellers: spreading rules), or
b
section 591(2) or 592(2) (non-UK resident sellers: elections for spreading),
are taxed in the tax year in which the seller dies.
2
The personal representatives may elect that the tax payable by reason of subsection (1) be reduced to the total amount of income tax that the seller and the estate would have been liable to pay if the amounts chargeable by reason of that subsection had been taxed in equal parts in each of the lifetime tax years.
3
In subsection (2) “the lifetime tax years” means—
a
the tax year in which the seller received the proceeds or, as the case may be, the instalment, and
b
each of the next tax years up to and including that in which the seller died.
4
An election under subsection (2) must be made on or before the first anniversary of the normal self-assessment filing date for the tax year in which the death occurs.