Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

782 Leased assets: special cases

(1) This section shall apply, and section 781 shall not apply, to payments—

(a) which are allowable by way of deductions in computing the profits or gains or losses of a trade, and

(b) which are made under a lease of an asset which at any time before the creation of the lease was used for the purposes—

(i) of that trade; or

(ii) of another trade carried on by the person who at that time or later was carrying on the first-mentioned trade;

and when so used was owned by the person carrying on the trade in which it was being used.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the deduction allowable in computing the profits or gains or losses of the trade for the purposes of tax as respects any such payment shall not exceed the commercial rent of the asset for the period for which the payment was made.

(3) If under subsection (2) above part of a payment which would otherwise be allowable as a deduction is not so allowable, and one or more subsequent payments are made by the same person under the same lease, that part of the first-mentioned payment may be carried forward and treated for the purposes of computing the profits or gains or losses of the trade for the purposes of tax as if it were made at the time when the next of those subsequent payments was made, and so made for the period for which that subsequent payment was made.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2) above—

(a) if more than one payment is made for the same period the payments shall be taken together;

(b) if the payments are made for periods which overlap, the payments shall be apportioned, and the apportioned payments which belong to the common part of the overlapping periods shall be taken together;

(c) the preceding references to payments include references to parts of payments which under subsection (3) above are treated as if made at a time subsequent to that at which they were made;

and to the extent that a part of a payment carried forward under subsection (3) above is not allowable as a deduction it may again be carried forward under that subsection.

(5) A payment made for a period all of which falls more than one year after the payment is made shall be treated for the purposes of this section as made for that period of one year beginning with the date on which the payment is made, and a payment for a period part of which falls after the end of that year shall be treated for those purposes as if a corresponding part of the payment was made for that year (and no part for any later period).

(6) For the purpose of making a comparison under subsection (2) above between a payment, or payments taken together, and the commercial rent of the asset, “commercial rent” shall mean the rent which might at the relevant time be expected to be paid under a lease of the asset for the remainder of the anticipated normal working life of the asset, being a rent payable at uniform intervals and at a uniform rate which would afford a reasonable return for its market value at the relevant time, having regard to the terms and conditions of the lease; and in this subsection—

• “anticipated normal working life” means, in the case of any asset, the period which might be expected, when the asset is first put into use, to be going to elapse before it is finally put out of use as being unfit for further use, it being assumed that the asset is going to be used in the normal manner and to the normal extent, and is going to be so used throughout that period; and

• “the relevant time” means the time when the lease was created under which the payment was made with which the commercial rent is to be compared.

(7) If the asset is used at the same time partly for the purposes of the trade and partly for other purposes the commercial rent as defined in subsection (6) above shall be determined by reference to what would be paid for such a partial use of the asset.

(8) This section shall not apply in relation to payments made under a lease created on or before 14th April 1964.

(9) In this section references to the person carrying on a trade are references to the person carrying on the trade for the time being, and where at any time a person succeeds to a trade which until that time was carried on by another person, and by virtue of section 113 or 337(1) the trade is to be treated as discontinued, the trade shall, nonetheless, be treated as the same trade for the purposes of this section.

(10) In this section references to a trade include references to a profession or vocation.