Finance Act 1995

23 (1) After section 434C of the Taxes Act 1988 (inserted by paragraph 22 above) insert—

“434D Capital allowances: management assets.

(1) This section has effect with respect to the allowances and charges to be made under the 1990 Act in respect of “management assets”, that is, assets provided for use or used for the management of life assurance business carried on by a company.

(2) No allowances or charges shall be made under that Act in respect of expenditure on management assets except under Part II (machinery and plant).

(3) Where the company is charged to tax under section 441 in respect of the profits of its overseas life assurance business for an accounting period—

(a) any allowance falling to be made under Part II of the 1990 Act in respect of expenditure on the provision outside the United Kingdom of machinery or plant for use for the management of that business shall be given effect by treating it as an expense of the business for that period; and

(b) any charge in respect of such expenditure falling to be so made shall be given effect by treating it as a receipt of the business for that period;

and sections 73, 144 and 145 of the 1990 Act do not apply.

(4) Allowances and charges falling to be made under Part II of the 1990 Act in respect of expenditure in respect of management assets not falling within subsection (3) above shall be apportioned between the different classes of life assurance business carried on by the company.

The amount referable to any class of life assurance business shall be the relevant fraction of the amount of the allowance or charge, that is, the fraction of which—

(a) the numerator is the mean of the opening and closing liabilities of the class of life assurance concerned, and

(b) the denominator is the mean of the opening and closing liabilities of all the classes of life assurance business carried on by the company.

(5) Where the company is charged to tax under section 436, 439B or 441 in respect of the profits of its pension business, life reinsurance business or overseas life assurance business for an accounting period—

(a) any allowance falling to be made under Part II of the 1990 Act in respect of expenditure on the provision of machinery or plant for use for the management of that business shall be given effect by treating the relevant proportion of the allowance as an expense of that business for the purpose of calculating the Case VI profit for that period; and

(b) any charge in respect of such expenditure falling to be so made shall be given effect by treating the relevant proportion of the charge as a receipt of that business for that purpose.

(6) Where a company carries on basic life assurance and general annuity business and the profits arising from that business do not fall to be charged to tax in accordance with the provisions applicable to Case I of Schedule D—

(a) allowances falling to be given under Part II of the 1990 Act in respect of expenditure on management assets shall be treated as additional expenses of management within section 76; and

(b) any charge falling to be made under that Part in respect of such assets shall be chargeable to tax under Case VI of Schedule D.

(7) For the purposes of this section the purposes of the management of a business shall be taken to be those purposes expenditure on which would be treated as expenses of management within section 76.

(8) Expenditure to which this section applies shall not be taken into account otherwise than in accordance with this section.

This shall not be construed as preventing any allowance under Part II of the 1990 Act which falls to be given by virtue of this section from being taken into account—

(a) in any computation of profits for the purposes of section 89(7) of the Finance Act 1989, or

(b) in any computation for the purposes of section 76(2) of the tax that would have been paid if the company had been charged to tax under Case I of Schedule D in respect of its life assurance business.

434E Capital allowances: investment assets.

(1) In this section “investment asset” means an asset held by a company for the purposes of its life assurance business otherwise than for the management of that business.

(2) The letting by a company of an investment asset shall be treated for the purposes of section 61 of the 1990 Act (machinery and plant on lease) as a letting otherwise than in the course of a trade.

(3) Any allowance under Part V of the 1990 Act (agricultural buildings, &c.) in respect of an investment asset shall be made by way of discharge or repayment of tax and shall be available primarily against agricultural income and income which is the subject of a balancing charge.

Effect shall be given to any balancing charge under that Part in respect of an investment asset by treating the amount on which the charge is to be made as agricultural income.

(4) Any allowance under the 1990 Act in respect of an investment asset shall be treated as referable to the category or categories of business to which income arising from the asset is or would be referable and shall be apportioned in accordance with section 432A in the same way as such income.

(5) No allowance under the 1990 Act in respect of an investment asset shall be taken into account—

(a) in computing the profits of any class of life assurance business under section 436, 439B or 441, or

(b) where the company is charged to tax in respect of its life assurance business under Case I of Schedule D, in computing the profits of that business.

(6) Where any allowance under the 1990 Act in respect of an investment asset falls to be taken into account (having regard to subsection (5) above), only such allowances as are referable to the company’s basic life assurance and general annuity business shall be given effect under section 145(1) of that Act, and then only against income referable to that business; and section 145(3) shall not apply.”.

(2) In section 75(4) of the Taxes Act 1988 omit the words “and insurance”.

(3) In section 86 of the Finance Act 1989 (spreading of relief for acquisition expenses), after subsection (5) insert—

“(5A) References in this section to expenses of management do not include any amounts treated as additional expenses of management by virtue of section 434D(6)(a) of the Taxes Act 1988 (capital allowances in respect of expenditure on management assets).”.