Finance Act 1994

152 Provisions which may be disregarded

(1) Where—

(a) but for the inclusion in a contract or option of provisions for one or more transfers of money or money’s worth, the contract or option would be a qualifying contract; and

(b) as regards the qualifying company and the relevant time, the present value of the transfer, or the aggregate of the present values of the transfers, is small when compared with the aggregate of the present values of all relevant payments,

the contract or option shall be treated for the purposes of section 149 or, as the case may be, section 150 above as if those provisions were not included in it.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above—

(a) any present value of a relevant payment which is a negative value shall be treated as if it were the equivalent positive value; and

(b) any relevant payment the amount of which represents the difference between two other amounts shall be treated as if it were a payment of an amount equal to the aggregate of those amounts.

(3) In this section—

• “relevant payments” means—

  (a)

  in relation to a contract, qualifying payments under the contract;

  (b)

  in relation to an option, qualifying payments under the option and payments which, if it were exercised, would be qualifying payments under the contract arising by virtue of its exercise;

• “the relevant time” means the time when the contract or option was entered into or, if later, the time when the provisions were included in the contract or option.