Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010

153 Arm’s length provision where security issued and guarantee given

(1) This section applies where the actual provision is made or imposed by means of a series of transactions which include—

(a) the issuing of a security by a company which is one of the affected persons (“the issuing company”), and

(b) the provision of a guarantee by a company which is the other affected person.

(2) Section 147(1)(d) is to be read as requiring account to be taken of all factors, including—

(a) the question whether the guarantee would have been provided at all in the absence of the special relationship,

(b) the amount that would have been guaranteed in the absence of the special relationship, and

(c) the consideration for the guarantee and other terms which would have been agreed in the absence of the special relationship.

(3) Subsection (2) has effect subject to subsections (4) and (5).

(4) If—

(a) a company (“G”) provides a guarantee in respect of another company with which it has a special relationship, and

(b) it is not part of G’s business to provide guarantees generally,

the fact that it is not part of G’s business to provide guarantees generally is to be disregarded in applying subsection (2).

(5) Section 147(1)(d) is to be read as requiring that, in the determination of any of the matters mentioned in subsection (6), no account is to be taken of (or of any inference capable of being drawn from) any guarantee provided by a company with which the issuing company has a participatory relationship.

(6) The matters are—

(a) the appropriate level or extent of the issuing company’s overall indebtedness,

(b) whether it might be expected that the issuing company and a particular person would have become parties to a transaction involving—

(i) the issue of a security by the issuing company, or

(ii) the making of a loan, or a loan of a particular amount, to the issuing company, and

(c) the rate of interest and other terms that might be expected to be applicable in any particular case to such a transaction.