Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

40 Tax treatment of receipts and outgoings on sale of land

(1) Where—

(a) by virtue of a contract for the sale of an estate or interest in land there falls to be apportioned between the parties a receipt or outgoing in respect of the estate or interest which becomes due after the making of the contract but before the time to which the apportionment falls to be made, and

(b) a part of the receipt is therefore receivable by the vendor in trust for the purchaser or, as the case may be, a part of the outgoing is paid by the vendor as trustee for the purchaser,

the purchaser shall be treated for the purposes of tax under Schedule A as if that part had become receivable or payable on his behalf immediately after the time to which the apportionment falls to be made.

(2) Where by virtue of such a contract there falls to be apportioned between the parties a receipt or outgoing in respect of the estate or interest which became due before the making of the contract, the parties shall be treated for the purposes of tax under Schedule A as if the contract had been entered into before the receipt or outgoing became due, and subsection (1) above shall apply accordingly.

(3) Where on the sale of an estate or interest in land there is apportioned to the vendor a part of a receipt or outgoing in respect of the estate or interest which is to become receivable or be paid by the purchaser after the making of the apportionment, then for the purposes of tax under Schedule A—

(a) when the receipt becomes due or, as the case may be, the outgoing is paid, the amount of it shall be treated as reduced by so much thereof as was apportioned to the vendor, and

(b) the part apportioned to the vendor shall be treated as if it were of the same nature as the receipt or outgoing and had become receivable, or had been paid, directly by him immediately before the time to which the apportionment is made and, where it is part of an outgoing, had become due immediately before that time.

(4) Any reference in subsection (1) or (2) above to a party to a contract shall include a person to whom the rights and obligations of that party under the contract have passed by assignment or otherwise.

(5) This section shall apply as respects tax under Case VI of Schedule D in a case falling within paragraph 4 of Schedule A as it applies as respects tax under Schedule A in other cases.