Corporation Tax Act 2009

Chapter 4 Relief from corporation tax on patent income

924 Relief for expenses: patent income

(1) Relief may be claimed under this section for patent application and maintenance expenses.

(2) In this section “patent application and maintenance expenses” means expenses incurred by a company in connection with—

(a) the grant or maintenance of a patent,

(b) the extension of the term of a patent, or

(c) a rejected or abandoned application for a patent,

but not incurred for the purposes of any trade carried on by the company.

(3) Relief may not be claimed under this section for patent application and maintenance expenses unless they are expenses which would, if incurred for the purposes of a trade, have been allowable as a deduction in calculating the profits of the trade.

(4) This section needs to be read with section 926 (contributions to expenditure).

925 How relief is given under section 924

(1) This section sets out how relief for expenses is given where a company makes a claim under section 924.

(2) The amount of the expenses must be deducted from or set off against the company’s income from patents for the accounting period in which the expenses were incurred.

(3) If the amount to be allowed is greater than the amount of the company’s income from patents for that accounting period, then (so long as the company remains within the charge to corporation tax) the excess must be deducted from or set off against the company’s income from patents for the next accounting period, and so on for subsequent accounting periods, without the need for a further claim.

(4) In this section “income from patents” means—

(a) royalties or other sums paid in respect of the use of a patent,

(b) amounts on which tax is payable under section 912, 918 or 1272, and

(c) amounts on which tax is payable under—

(i) section 472(5) of CAA 2001 (patent allowances: balancing charges), or

(ii) paragraph 100 of Schedule 3 to that Act (balancing charges in respect of pre-1st April 1986 expenditure on purchase of patent rights),

but does not include any amount chargeable to income tax.

(5) In this section references to a company’s income from patents are to the income after any allowance has been deducted from or set off against it under section 480 of CAA 2001 (certain allowances against income from patents).