Finance Act 1991

63 Relief for reimbursement expenditure under abandonment guarantees

(1) This section applies in any case where—

(a) on or after 19th March 1991 a payment (in this section referred to as “the guarantee payment”) is made by the guarantor under an abandonment guarantee; and

(b) by virtue of the making of the guarantee payment, the relevant participator becomes liable under the terms of the abandonment guarantee to pay any sum or sums to the guarantor; and

(c) expenditure is incurred, or consideration in money’s worth is given, by the relevant participator in or towards meeting that liability.

(2) In any case where the whole of the guarantee payment or, as the case may require, of the assets which, under section 62(4) above, are attributed to the guarantee payment is not applied in meeting liabilities of the relevant participator which fall within paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of section 104 of this Act and a sum representing the unapplied part of the guarantee payment or of those assets is repaid, directly or indirectly, to the guarantor,—

(a) any liability of the relevant participator to repay that sum shall be excluded in determining the total liability of the relevant participator which falls within subsection (1)(b) above; and

(b) the repayment to the guarantor of that sum shall not be regarded as expenditure incurred by the relevant participator as mentioned in subsection (1)(c) above.

(3) In the following provisions of this section “reimbursement expenditure” means expenditure incurred as mentioned in subsection (1)(c) above or consideration (or, as the case may require, the value of consideration) given as so mentioned; and any reference to the incurring of reimbursement expenditure shall be construed accordingly.

(4) So much of any reimbursement expenditure as, in accordance with subsection (5) below, is qualifying expenditure shall, by virtue of this section, be allowed as a deduction in computing the relevant participator’s ring fence income; and no part of the expenditure which is so allowed shall be otherwise deductible or allowable by way of relief for any purposes of tax.

(5) Subject to subsection (6) below, of the reimbursement expenditure incurred in any accounting period by the relevant participator, the amount which constitutes qualifying expenditure shall be determined by the formula—

where—

• “A” is the reimbursement expenditure incurred in the accounting period;

• “B” is so much of the expenditure represented by the guarantee payment as, if it had been incurred by the relevant participator, would have been taken into account (by way of capital allowance or a deduction) in computing his ring fence income; and

• “C” is the total of the sums which, at or before the end of the accounting period, the relevant participator is or has become liable to pay to the guarantor as mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above.

(6) In relation to the guarantee payment, the total of the reimbursement expenditure (whenever incurred) which constitutes qualifying expenditure shall not exceed whichever is the less of “B” and “C” in the formula in subsection (5) above; and any limitation on qualifying expenditure arising by virtue of this subsection shall be applied to the expenditure of a later in preference to an earlier accounting period.

(7) For the purposes of this section, the expenditure represented by the guarantee payment is any expenditure—

(a) for which the relevant participator is liable; and

(b) which is met, directly or indirectly, out of the guarantee payment (and which, accordingly, by virtue of section 62(3) above is not to be regarded as expenditure incurred by the relevant participator).

(8) In this section—

(a) “abandonment guarantee” has the same meaning as, by virtue of section 104 of this Act, it has for the purposes of section 3 of the 1975 Act;

(b) “the guarantor” and “the relevant participator” have the same meaning as in subsection (1) of section 104 of this Act; and

(c) other expressions have the same meaning as in Chapter V of Part XII of the Taxes Act 1988 (petroleum extraction activities).