268Successions by beneficiaries
(1)This section applies if—
(a)a person succeeds to a qualifying activity as a beneficiary under the will or on the intestacy of a deceased person who carried on the qualifying activity,
(b)the qualifying activity is treated as discontinued under section 113(1) of ICTA (changes in persons carrying on a trade etc.), and
(c)the beneficiary elects by notice to the Inland Revenue for this section to apply.
(2)In relation to the succession and any previous succession occurring on or after the death of the deceased, relevant plant or machinery is treated as if it had been sold to the beneficiary when the succession takes place.
(3)The net proceeds of the sale are treated as being the lesser of—
(a)the market value of the plant or machinery, and
(b)the unrelieved qualifying expenditure which would have been taken into account in calculating the amount of a balancing allowance for the appropriate chargeable period if the disposal value of the plant or machinery had been nil.
“Appropriate chargeable period” means the chargeable period in which the deceased person’s qualifying activity was permanently discontinued.
(4)“Relevant plant or machinery” means plant or machinery which—
(a)was previously owned by the deceased,
(b)passes to the beneficiary with the qualifying activity, and
(c)is either used or provided and available for use by the beneficiary for the purposes of the qualifying activity.
(5)Subsections (6) and (7) apply if the beneficiary is required to bring a disposal value into account in respect of relevant plant or machinery.
(6)The provisions limiting the amount of the disposal value of property, that is—
(a)section 62 (limit on disposal value: general), and
(b)section 239 (limit on disposal value where additional VAT rebate),
apply in relation to the beneficiary to limit the disposal value by reference to expenditure incurred by the deceased or additional VAT rebates made to the deceased.
(7)Section 73 (limit on disposal value: software and rights to software) applies as if the previous disposal values to be taken into account in determining whether the limit under those provisions is exceeded were those of the deceased.
(8)In this section “qualifying activity”—
(a)does not include an employment or office, but
(b)includes any other activity listed in section 15(1) even if any profits or gains from it are not chargeable to tax.