Corporation Tax Act, 1976

PART XVI

Savings, Transitions, etc.

Commencement of corporation tax for existing companies, and transition from income tax.

173.—(1) A company not within the charge to income tax for the year 1975-76 in respect of a source of income shall not come within the charge to corporation tax in respect of that source for any period before the end of that year, and for this purpose a company shall be regarded as not having been within the charge to income tax for the year 1975-76 if it was entitled for that year, under agreements between the Government and the United Kingdom Government in respect of double income tax, to exemption from income tax in respect of profits or income arising in the State.

(2) Where a company is within the charge to income tax for the year 1975-76 in respect of a source of income, the company shall not come within the charge to corporation tax in respect of that source for any period before the end of that year, unless the charge to income tax for that year falls to be ascertained by reference to a period ending before the end of that year and the company possesses the source at the end of that year, but shall in that case be within the charge to corporation tax in respect of the source from the end of the basis period for income tax for that year or, if it is later, the end of the basis period for the year 1974-75.

(3) In this section any reference to the basis period for the year 1974-75 or 1975-76 is, in relation to any source of income, a reference to the period on the income of which the income tax (if any) chargeable for that year falls to be finally computed in respect of the source or, where by virtue of any provision of the Income Tax Acts the income of any other period is to be taken to be the income of the said period, that other period.

(4) Where a company is within the charge to income tax in respect of a trade on the 5th day of April, 1976, and continues to carry on the trade after that date, section 12 (2) (miscellaneous special rules for computation of income) shall not apply to treat the trade as permanently discontinued and a new trade as set up and commenced on the company first coming within the charge to corporation tax in respect of that trade.

(5) Where, in the case of a trade carried on by a company, the year 1974-75 or the year 1975-76 is the year next but one after the year of assessment in which the trade is set up and commenced and the company makes a claim under section 58 (4) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 (basis of assessment), the end of the basis period for income tax for the purpose of subsection (2) shall, if the year of claim is 1974-75 be taken to be the 5th day of April, 1975, and shall, if the year of claim is 1975-76, be taken to be the 5th day of April, 1976.

(6) Section 58 (5) (a) (ii) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , as amended by section 3 of the Finance Act, 1971 (period of computation of profits on discontinuance of trade), shall not apply in relation to income tax for any year of assessment on the discontinuance after the 5th day of April, 1976, of a trade carried on by a company; nor shall either section 77 (3) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 (basis of assessment under Case III of Schedule D), or section 81 (3) (b) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , as substituted by section 22 of the Finance Act, 1969 (basis of assessment under Case V of Schedule D), apply in the case of a company in relation to income tax for the year 1975-76, unless that year is the last year in which the company possesses the source.