Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020

16 (1) Before providing a coronavirus-related grant to a person, the Scottish Ministers must take steps to satisfy themselves about whether or not sub-paragraph (4) applies to the person.

(2) If, having taken those steps, the Scottish Ministers are satisfied that sub-paragraph (4) applies to the person, they are not to provide the grant.

(3) The Scottish Ministers must frame the terms of coronavirus-related grants so that they are entitled to repayment of a grant if they ascertain, after providing it (wholly or partly), that the person to whom the grant was provided—

(a) was a person that sub-paragraph (4) applied to at the time the Ministers decided to provide the grant, or

(b) knowingly provided false or misleading information in applying for the grant.

(4) This sub-paragraph applies to a person that—

(a) is based in a tax haven,

(b) is the subsidiary of a person based in a tax haven,

(c) has a subsidiary based in a tax haven,

(d) is party to an arrangement under which any of its profits are subject to the tax regime of a tax haven.

(5) For the purposes of this paragraph, a person is based in a tax haven if the person is incorporated or otherwise established under the law of a tax haven.

(6) Sub-paragraphs (1) to (3) do not apply in relation to a grant if the application for it was received by the Scottish Ministers before the date on which this paragraph comes into force.

(7) In this paragraph—

• “coronavirus-related grant” means a grant to mitigate the effects on the person’s business of disruption attributable to coronavirus,

• “subsidiary” is to be read in accordance with section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006,

• “tax haven” means a jurisdiction for the time being included in—

  (a)

  the revised EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes set out in Annex I to the Council of the European Union’s conclusions of February 2020 on the revised EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes (2020/C 64/03), or

  (b)

  any successor list of jurisdictions endorsed for the same purposes by the Council.