Finance Act 1981

59 Prevention of misuse

(1) An individual is not entitled to relief in respect of any shares unless the shares are subscribed for and issued for bona fide commercial purposes and not as part of a scheme or arrangement the main purpose or one of the main purposes of which is the avoidance of tax.

(2) The relief to which an individual is entitled in respect of any shares in a company shall be reduced in accordance with subsection (3) below if at any time in the relevant period the company repays, redeems or repurchases any of its share capital which belongs to any member other than—

(a) that individual; or

(b) another individual whose relief is thereby reduced by virtue of section 58(2)(a) above,

or makes any payment to any such member for giving up his right to any of the company's share capital on its cancellation or extinguishment.

(3) Where subsection (2) above applies the amount of relief to which an individual is entitled shall be reduced by the amount receivable by the member or, if greater, the nominal value of the share capital in question ; and where, apart from this subsection, two or more individuals would be entitled to relief the reduction shall be made in proportion to the amounts of relief to which they would, apart from this subsection, have been entitled.

(4) Where at any time in the relevant period a member of a company receives or is entitled to receive any value from the company within the meaning of this subsection, then, for the purposes of the provisions of section 53(3) and (7) and section 54(4) above in their application to any subsequent time—

(a) the amount of the company's issued ordinary share capital; and

(b) the amount of the part of that capital which consists of the shares relevant to those provisions and the amount of the part consisting of the remainder,

shall each be treated as reduced in accordance with subsection (5) below.

(5) The amount of each of the parts mentioned in subsection (4)(b) above shall be treated as equal to such proportion of that amount as the amount subscribed for that part less the relevant value bears to the amount subscribed ; and the amount of the issued share capital shall be treated as equal to the sum of the amounts treated under this subsection as the amount of those parts respectively.

(6) In subsection (4)(b) above the reference to the part of the capital which consists of the shares relevant to the provisions there mentioned is a reference—

(a) in relation to section 53(3), to the part consisting of shares in respect of which the relief has been given or is claimed;

(b) in relation to section 53(7), to the part consisting of shares in respect of which the relief has been given ;

(c) in relation to section 54(4), to the part consisting of shares which (within the meaning of that section) the individual directly or indirectly possesses or is entitled to acquire;

and in subsection (5) above " the relevant value ", in relation to each of the parts there mentioned, means the value received by the member or members entitled to the shares of which that part consists.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (4) above a member of a company receives or is entitled to receive value from the company in any case in which an individual would receive value from the company by virtue of paragraph (d), (e), (f), (g) or (h) of subsection (2) of section 58 above (but treating as excepted from paragraph (h) all payments made for full consideration) and the value received shall be determined as for the purposes of that section.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (7) above a person shall be treated as entitled to receive anything which he is entitled to receive at a future date or will at a future date be entitled to receive.