Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

Purchase and sale of securities

731Application and interpretation of sections 732 to 734

(1)In this section “the relevant provisions” means sections 732, 733, 734 and this section.

(2)Subject to subsections (3) to (10) below, the relevant provisions relate to cases of a purchase by a person (“the first buyer”) of any securities and their subsequent sale by him, the result of the transaction being that interest becoming payable in respect of the securities (“the interest”) is receivable by the first buyer.

(3)The relevant provisions do not relate to cases where—

(a)the time elapsing between the purchase by the first buyer and his taking steps to dispose of the securities exceeded six months, or

(b)that time exceeded one month and it is shown to the satisfaction of the Board that the purchase and sale were each effected at the current market price, and that the sale was not effected in pursuance of an agreement or arrangement made before or at the time of the purchase.

The jurisdiction of the General Commissioners or Special Commissioners on any appeal shall include jurisdiction to review any relevant decision taken by the Board in the exercise of their functions under this subsection.

(4)The reference in subsection (3) above to the first buyer taking steps to dispose of the securities shall be construed—

(a)if he sold them in the exercise of an option he had acquired, as a reference to his acquisition of the option,

(b)in any other case, as a reference to his selling them.

(5)For the purposes of the relevant provisions, a sale of securities similar to, and of the like nominal amount as, securities previously bought (“the original securities”) shall be equivalent to a sale of the original securities, and subsection (4) above shall apply accordingly; and where the first buyer bought parcels of similar securities at different times a subsequent sale of any of the securities shall, so far as may be, be related to the last to be bought of the parcels, and then to the last but one, and so on.

(6)A person shall be under no greater liability to tax by virtue of subsection (5) above than he would have been under if instead of selling the similar securities he had sold the original securities.

(7)Where at the time when a trade is, or is deemed to be, set up and commenced any securities form part of the trading stock belonging to the trade, those securities shall be treated for the purposes of this section—

(a)as having been sold at that time in the open market by the person to whom they belonged immediately before that time, and

(b)as having been purchased at that time in the open market by the person thereafter engaged in carrying on the trade.

(8)Subject to subsection (7) above, where there is a change in the persons engaged in carrying on a trade which is not a change on which the trade is deemed to be discontinued, the provisions of this section shall apply in relation to the person so engaged after the change as if anything done to or by his predecessor had been done to or by him.

(9)For the purposes of the relevant provisions—

• “interest” includes a qualifying distribution and any dividend which is not a qualifying distribution, and in applying references to interest in relation to a qualifying distribution—

  (a)

  “gross interest” means the qualifying distribution together with the tax credit to which the recipient of the distribution is entitled in respect of it; and

  (b)

  “net interest” means the qualifying distribution exclusive of any such tax credit;

• “person” includes any body of persons, and references to a person entitled to any exemption from tax include, in a case of an exemption expressed to apply to income of a trust or fund, references to the persons entitled to make claims for the granting of that exemption;

• “securities” includes stocks and shares, except securities which are securities for the purposes of sections 710 to 728.

(10)For the purposes of the relevant provisions, securities shall be deemed to be similar if they entitle their holders to the same rights against the same persons as to capital and interest and the same remedies for the enforcement of those rights, notwithstanding any difference in the total nominal amounts of the respective securities or in the form in which they are held or the manner in which they can be transferred; and for the purposes of this subsection, rights guaranteed by the Treasury shall be treated as rights against the Treasury.

732Dealers in securities

(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, if the first buyer is engaged in carrying on a trade which consists of or comprises dealings in securities, then, in computing for any of the purposes of the Tax Acts the profits arising from or loss sustained in the trade, the price paid by him for the securities shall be reduced by the appropriate amount in respect of the interest, as determined in accordance with section 735.

(2)Subsection (1) above shall not apply if the subsequent sale is carried out by the first buyer after 26th October 1986 in the ordinary course of his business as a market maker in securities of the kind concerned.

(3)Subsection (1) above shall not apply if the purchase of the securities by the first buyer and their resale, or as the case may be the subsequent sale of similar securities, constitute a transaction which is to be left out of account in computing profits or losses by virtue of section 729(4), or a transaction which would fall to be so left out of account apart from section 729(8).

(4)Subsection (1) above shall not apply if the securities are overseas securities bought by the first buyer on a stock exchange outside the United Kingdom in the ordinary course of his trade as a dealer in securities and the following conditions are satisfied, namely—

(a)the interest is brought into account in computing for the purposes of the Tax Acts the profits arising from or loss sustained in the trade, and

(b)where credit against tax would fall to be allowed in respect of the interest under section 788 or 790, the first buyer elects that credit shall not be so allowed.

In this subsection “overseas securities” means securities of the government of, or of a body of persons resident in, any country or territory outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

(5)Subsection (1) above shall not apply if the securities are Eurobonds bought by the first buyer in the ordinary course of his trade as a dealer in Eurobonds; and in this subsection “Eurobond” means a security—

(a)which is neither preference stock nor preference share capital; and

(b)which is issued in bearer form; and

(c)which carries a right to interest either at a fixed rate or at a rate bearing a fixed relationship to a standard published base rate; and

(d)which does not carry a right to any other form of benefit, whether in the nature of interest, participation in profits or otherwise; and

(e)the interest on which is payable without any deduction in respect of income tax or of any tax of a similar character imposed by the laws of a territory outside the United Kingdom;

but, notwithstanding anything in paragraph (d) above, a security is not prevented from being a Eurobond by reason only that it carries a right to convert into a security of another description or to subscribe for further securities (whether of the same description or not).

(6)For the purposes of subsection (2) above a person is a market maker in securities of a particular kind if he—

(a)holds himself out at all normal times in compliance with the rules of the Stock Exchange as willing to buy and sell securities of that kind at a price specified by him; and

(b)is recognised as doing so by the Council of the Stock Exchange.

733Persons entitled to exemptions

(1)If the first buyer is entitled under any enactment to an exemption from tax which, apart from this subsection, would extend to the interest, then the exemption shall not extend to an amount equal to the appropriate amount in respect of the interest, as determined in accordance with section 735.

(2)If the first buyer is so entitled and any annual payment is payable by him out of the interest, the annual payment shall be deemed as to the whole thereof to be paid out of profits or gains not brought into charge to income tax, and section 349(1) shall apply accordingly.

734Persons other than dealers in securities

(1)If the first buyer carries on a trade not falling within section 732, then in ascertaining whether any or what repayment of income tax is to be made to him under section 380 or 381 by reference to any loss sustained in the trade and the amount of his income for the year of assessment his income for which includes the interest, there shall be left out of account—

(a)the appropriate amount in respect of the interest, as determined in accordance with section 735, and

(b)any tax paid on that amount.

(2)Where the first buyer is a company which does not carry on a trade falling within section 732—

(a)the appropriate amount in respect of the interest, as determined in accordance with section 735(2), and

(b)any tax paid in respect of or deducted from that amount,

shall be disregarded except that, for the purposes of corporation tax on chargeable gains, the appropriate proportion of the net interest receivable by the first buyer as mentioned in section 735(2) shall be treated as if it were a capital distribution within the meaning of section 72(5)(b) of the 1979 Act received in respect of the holding of the securities concerned.

(3)In applying references in this section to interest in relation to a qualifying distribution, references to any tax paid on or in respect of an amount shall be construed as references to so much of any related tax credit as is attributable to that amount; and for this purpose “related tax credit”, in relation to an amount, means the tax credit to which the recipient of the distribution of which that amount is a proportion is entitled.

735Meaning of “appropriate amount in respect of” interest

(1)For the purposes of section 732 the appropriate amount in respect of the interest is the appropriate proportion of the net interest receivable by the first buyer.

(2)For the purposes of sections 733 and 734 the appropriate amount in respect of the interest is the gross amount corresponding with the appropriate proportion of the net interest receivable by the first buyer.

(3)For the purposes of this section the appropriate proportion is the proportion which—

(a)the period beginning with the date on which the securities were first listed in The Stock Exchange Daily Official List at a price excluding the value of the interest payment last payable before the interest receivable by the first buyer, and ending with the day before the day on which the first buyer bought the securities,

bears to—

(b)the period beginning with that date and ending with the day before the first date after the purchase by the first buyer on which the securities are quoted in that List at a price excluding the value of the interest receivable by the first buyer.

(4)Where the interest receivable by the first buyer was the first interest payment payable in respect of the securities, paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) above shall have effect with the substitution, for references to the date on which the securities were first quoted as mentioned in paragraph (a), of the beginning of the period for which the interest was payable; except that where the capital amount of the securities was not fully paid at the beginning of that period and one or more instalments of capital were paid during that period—

(a)the interest shall be treated as divided into parts, calculated by reference to the amount of the interest attributable to the capital paid at or before the beginning of that period and the amount thereof attributable to each such instalment, and

(b)treating each of those parts as interest payable for that period or, where the part was calculated by reference to any such instalment, as interest payable for the part of that period beginning with the payment of the instalment, there shall be calculated, in accordance with the preceding provisions of this section, the amount constituting the appropriate proportion of each part, and

(c)the appropriate proportion of the interest for the purposes of this section shall be the proportion thereof constituted by the sum of those amounts.

(5)In relation to securities not listed in the Stock Exchange Daily Official List, subsection (3) above shall have effect with the substitution for the periods therein mentioned of such periods as in the opinion of the Commissioners having jurisdiction in the matter, correspond therewith in the case of the securities in question.