Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997

Surrender of relief between members of groups and consortia.

[CTA76 s107]

411.—(1) (a) For the purposes of this section and the following sections of this Chapter—

“holding company” means a company whose business consists wholly or mainly in the holding of shares or securities of companies which are its 90 per cent subsidiaries and are trading companies;

“trading company” means a company whose business consists wholly or mainly of the carrying on of a trade or trades;

a company shall be owned by a consortium if all of the ordinary share capital of the company is directly and beneficially owned between them by 5 or fewer companies, and those companies shall be called the members of the consortium;

2 companies shall be deemed to be members of a group of companies if one company is the 75 per cent subsidiary of the other company or both companies are 75 per cent subsidiaries of a third company.

(b) In applying for the purposes of this section and the following sections of this Chapter the definition of “75 per cent subsidiary” in section 9 , any share capital of a registered industrial and provident society shall be treated as ordinary share capital.

(c) References in this section and in the following sections of this Chapter to a company shall apply only to companies resident in the State, and in determining for the purposes of this section and the following sections of this Chapter whether one company is a 75 per cent subsidiary of another company, the other company shall be treated as not being the owner of—

(i) any share capital which it owns directly in a company if a profit on a sale of the shares would be treated as a trading receipt of its trade,

(ii) any share capital which it owns indirectly and which is owned directly by a company for which a profit on the sale of the shares would be a trading receipt, or

(iii) any share capital which it owns directly or indirectly in a company not resident in the State.

(2) Relief for trading losses and other amounts eligible for relief from corporation tax may in accordance with this Chapter be surrendered by a company (called the “surrendering company”) which is a member of a group of companies and, on the making of a claim by another company (called the “claimant company”) which is a member of the same group, may be allowed to the claimant company by means of a relief from corporation tax called “group relief”.

(3) Group relief shall also be available in accordance with the following provisions of this Chapter—

(a) where the surrendering company is a trading company owned by a consortium and is not a 75 per cent subsidiary of any company, and the claimant company is a member of the consortium,

(b) where the surrendering company is a trading company which—

(i) is a 90 per cent subsidiary of a holding company owned by a consortium, and

(ii) is not a 75 per cent subsidiary of a company other than the holding company,

and the claimant company is a member of the consortium, or

(c) where the surrendering company is a holding company owned by a consortium and is not a 75 per cent subsidiary of any company, and the claimant company is a member of the consortium;

but no claim may be made by a member of a consortium if a profit on a sale of the share capital of the surrendering company or holding company which that member owns would be treated as a trading receipt of that member nor if the member's share in the consortium in the relevant accounting period of the surrendering company or holding company is nil.

(4) Subject to the following provisions of this Chapter, 2 or more claimant companies may make claims relating to the same surrendering company and to the same accounting period of that surrendering company.

(5) A payment for group relief shall not—

(a) be taken into account in computing profits or losses of either company for corporation tax purposes, and

(b) be regarded as a distribution or a charge on income for any of the purposes of the Corporation Tax Acts,

and, in this subsection, “payment for group relief” means a payment made by the claimant company to the surrendering company in pursuance of an agreement between them as respects an amount surrendered by means of group relief, being a payment not exceeding that amount.