Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

385 Carry-forward against subsequent profits

(1) Where a person has, in any trade, profession or vocation carried on by him either alone or in partnership, sustained a loss (to be computed in the same way as profits or gains under the provisions of the Income Tax Acts applicable to Cases I and II of Schedule D) in respect of which relief has not been wholly given either under section 380 or under any other provision of those Acts, he may make a claim requiring that any portion of the loss for which relief has not been so given shall be carried forward and, as far as may be, deducted from or set off against the amount of profits or gains on which he is assessed to income tax under Schedule D in respect of that trade, profession or vocation for subsequent years of assessment.

(2) In the application of this section to a loss sustained by a partner in a partnership, “the amount of profits or gains on which he is assessed” shall, in respect of any year, be taken to mean such portion of the amount on which the partnership is assessed to income tax under Schedule D in respect of the trade, profession or vocation as he would be required to include in a return of his total income for that year.

(3) Any relief under this section shall be given as far as possible from the first subsequent assessment, and so far as it cannot be so given, then from the next assessment, and so on.

(4) Where in any year of assessment relief cannot be given, or cannot be wholly given, in respect of a loss carried forward under this section because the amount of the profits or gains of the trade assessed under Case I of Schedule D for that year is insufficient, any interest or dividends being interest or dividends—

(a) on investments arising in that year, and

(b) which would fall to be taken into account as trading receipts in computing the profits or gains of the trade for the purposes of assessment under that Case but for the fact that they have been subjected to tax under other provisions of the Income Tax Acts,

shall be treated for the purposes of the application of this section as if they were profits or gains on which the person carrying on the trade was assessed under that Case in respect of that trade for that year of assessment, and relief shall be given accordingly by repayment or otherwise.

(5) Where there is in any year of assessment a change on which a trade, profession or vocation is treated under section 113 as permanently discontinued, and a person engaged in carrying it on immediately before the change continues to be so engaged immediately thereafter, then—

(a) the trade, profession or vocation carried on by him immediately before and that carried on immediately after the change shall, notwithstanding the discontinuance, be treated as the same for the purposes of this section, except as respects the computation of profits or gains and losses; and

(b) in respect of a loss sustained by him in the trade, profession or vocation in the part of that year before the change, relief shall be given under this section from the assessment relating to the part of the year after the change as if it were an assessment for a subsequent year; and

(c) for the purposes of this section, there shall be treated as a loss so sustained in the part of the year before the change his share of the non-effective amount (if any) of any capital allowances falling to be made in taxing the trade, profession or vocation for that part of that year.

For the purposes of paragraph (c) above—

(i) the persons engaged in carrying on the trade, profession or vocation immediately before the change shall be treated as entitled to capital allowances in the shares in which they are then entitled to the profits of the trade, profession or vocation, and

(ii) “the non-effective amount” means, in relation to any such allowances, the amount to which, because of an insufficiency of profits or gains, effect cannot be given in taxing the trade, profession or vocation.

(6) Where a loss is sustained by a person in the occupation of woodlands, and that person, if he had made a profit, would by reason of his election under section 54 have been chargeable for the following year to income tax under Schedule D computed on the amount of that profit, this section shall apply so as to give relief in respect of that loss in the same manner, and to the same extent, as if it were a loss sustained in a trade.

(7) In so far as relief in respect of any loss has been given to any person under this section, that person shall not be entitled to claim relief in respect of that loss under any other provision of the Income Tax Acts.

(8) So far as a claim under this section concerns the amount of the loss for any year of assessment it must be made within six years after the year of assessment in question, but the question whether any and if so how much relief on that amount should be given under this section against tax for any year of assessment may be the subject of a separate claim made not later than six years after that year of assessment.