Finance Act 2024

Substance based income exclusion: leases

25 (1) In section 195 (calculation of substance based income exclusion), after subsection (7) insert—

“(7A) Section 197A sets out the treatment of operating leases.”

(2) After section 197 insert—

“197A Operating leases

(1) Subsection (2) applies where—

(a) a member of a multinational group holds property located in the same territory as the member in an accounting period,

(b) that property is held for lease by the member, and

(c) the lease is accounted for in the underlying profits accounts of the member as an operating lease for that period.

(2) The operating lease is to be regarded as an eligible tangible asset of the member for that period (despite the exclusion in section 197(7)(a)).

(3) But where the property is not a short-term rental asset for that period, any carrying value of the operating lease recorded at the start or the end of the period is to be reduced by the right-of-use amount for the property at that time for the purposes of carrying out the calculation in section 197(1).

(4) In a case where the lessee is a member of the same multinational group as the lessor, the right-of-use amount in relation to the property at the start or the end of the period is the carrying value of the lessee’s right-of-use asset in relation to the property recorded at that time.

(5) Where the lessee is not a member of the same multinational group as the lessor, the right-of-use amount in relation to the property at the start or end of the period is the undiscounted value of any outstanding payments under the lease at that time.

(6) In determining the value of those outstanding payments—

(a) apply the accounting standard used in determining the underlying profits of the member,

(b) include the value of any outstanding payments that would be due under any extension to the lease that would fall to be accounted for in accordance with that standard.

(7) For the purposes of this section, property held for lease is a short-term rental asset in an accounting period if—

(a) the property was leased regularly during that period to different lessees, and

(b) the average length of the periods for which it was leased does not exceed 30 days.”