Section 524: Notice for a company to become a UK REIT
1619.This section provides that, in order to be a “company UK REIT”, the company must give notice of entering the UK REIT regime. It is based on sections 106 and 109 of FA 2006.
1620.Subsections (1) and (2) provide that a company may give notice for the UK REIT regime to apply from a specified date. A new accounting period of the company starts on the specified date (see section 536(5)). That new accounting period is called “accounting period 1” – see section 609.
1621.It is possible for a company with a 75% subsidiary to give notice under subsection (3) on its own, in which case none of its 75% subsidiaries is included in the UK REIT regime.
1622.If a company UK REIT gives notice under this section and subsequently wants an existing 75% subsidiary to be brought within the regime, a group notice under section 523 needs to be given. The new notice must comply with all the requirements of section 525.
1623.If a company UK REIT gives notice under section 586(2) for a joint venture company to be treated as forming a group UK REIT with the company UK REIT, the notice does not cause any 75% subsidiaries of the company UK REIT to be brought within the regime.
1624.Subsection (3) provides that a company may give notice only if it is a “UK company” as defined in section 521 and it is not an OEIC.
1625.It is unclear from the source legislation (in particular sections 106(2), 107(1) and 108(1) of FA 2006) whether a company becomes a UK REIT from the date specified in a section 109 of FA 2006 notice or when the various conditions set out in sections 106(2), 107(1) and 108(1) of FA 2006 are satisfied. Subsection (4) addresses this by making it clear that a group becomes a UK REIT from the date specified in the notice given under this section.
1626.Subsection (5) defines“company UK REIT” as being a company which has given notice under this section.
1627.Section 103(3) of FA 2006, which provides that “a company or group to which this Part applies may be referred to as a Real Estate Investment Trust”, is not rewritten as this expression is not used elsewhere in the legislation.
1628.Subsection (6) makes clear that merely giving a notice is not enough: the company must also meet the conditions in section 527.
