Section 431: Excluded occasions of redemption
1742.This section exempts from the charge under this Chapter certain securities which were not issued to gain a tax advantage and where redemption is not within the power of the holder. It is based on paragraph 3 of Schedule 13 to FA 1996.
1743.Under section 430(1) the test for a deep discount can be applied on maturity or any possible occasion of redemption. Those occasions of redemption are ignored if the conditions in subsection (2) or (3) of this section are met.
1744.In subsection (2) the conditions in paragraphs 3(1A) and 3(1C) of Schedule 13 to FA 1996 have been amalgamated and renamed “the third-party option conditions”. These apply where the achieving of a tax advantage (defined in section 460(2)) is not a main benefit and the security is issued to a person who is not connected with the issuer (see subsection (7) and section 878(5) of this Act) and is not redeemable by the holder.
1745.Subsection (3) provides the second conditions which have been renamed “the commercial protection conditions”. These exempt from charge securities which can only be redeemed as the result of an event which in practice is likely to be outside the power of the holder and which could not have been anticipated when the securities were issued.
1746.Under subsection (4) neither of these two sets of conditions is considered as met simply because an occasion of redemption happens to takes place coincidentally at the same time that one of these sets is met.
1747.For the “third-party option conditions” to apply the security must be issued to a person who is not connected with the issuer. Subsection (5) provides that where those conditions are met but the security is then acquired by a connected person (or the holder becomes such a person) the conditions will cease to apply.
1748.Subsection (6) deals with the reverse of the condition provided for in subsection (5). Where a person who is not connected with the issuer acquires a security which fails to satisfy the “third-party option conditions” only because it was issued to a person connected with the issuer, then it ceases to be a deeply discounted security from that date. This subsection also applies where a security which is a deeply discounted security as a result of subsection (5) is acquired.