Corporation Tax Act, 1976

Tax-free securities: exclusion of interest on borrowed money.

52.—(1) This section has effect where section 51 (2) applies to a business for any accounting period.

(2) Up to the amount determined under this section (called the amount ineligible for relief) interest becoming due for payment on or after the 6th day of April, 1976, on money borrowed for the purposes of the business—

(a) shall be excluded in any computation under this Act of the profits (or loss) arising from the business or, where subsection (5) applies, arising from any annuity business or pension business forming part of the life business, and

(b) shall be excluded from the definition of “charges on income” in section 10.

(3) In determining the amount ineligible for relief, account shall be taken of all money borrowed for the purposes of the business which is outstanding in the accounting period, up to the total cost of the tax-free securities held for the purposes of the business in that period:

Provided that account shall not be taken of any borrowed money carrying interest which, apart from subsection (2), does not fall to be included in the computations under paragraph (a) of that subsection, and is not to be treated as a charge on income for the purposes of this Act.

(4) Subject to subsection (5), the amount ineligible for relief shall be equal to a year's interest on the amount of money borrowed which is to be taken into account under subsection (3) at a rate equal to the average rate of interest in the accounting period on money borrowed for the purposes of the business, except that in the case of an accounting period of less than twelve months, interest shall be taken for that shorter period instead of for a year.

(5) Where relief for expenses of management is to be granted to an overseas life assurance company for any accounting period and that relief falls to be reduced under section 51 (3) (b) the amount ineligible for relief shall be a fraction of the amount of interest in the accounting period on money borrowed for the purposes of the life business (excluding pension business and general annuity business, if any) and that fraction shall be the fraction which is income from tax-free securities divided by total investment income of the life assurance fund.

(6) For the purposes of this section, the cost of a holding of tax-free securities which has fluctuated in the accounting period shall be the average cost of acquisition of the initial holding, and of any subsequent acquisitions in the accounting period, applied to the average amount of the holding in the accounting period, and this subsection shall be applied separately to securities of different classes.