Finance Act 1917

22 Special provisions as to deficiencies and losses of shipping concerns

(1) In computing the excess profits duty of any trade or business which consists wholly or partly of the business of shipping the provisions of subsection (3) of section thirty-eight of the principal Act (which relate to the repayment or setting off of duty on account of deficiencies or losses) shall not apply in relation to any deficiency or loss in any accounting period commencing on or after the first day of January nineteen hundred and seventeen, and in the case of an accounting period which has commenced before that date but ends after that date, shall not apply in relation to so much of the deficiency or loss as may be apportioned under this Act to the part commencing on that date:

Provided that—

(a) where the shipping business is carried on merely as ancillary to the principal trade or business, the provisions of this section shall not apply ;

(b) where the trade or business carried on does not consist wholly of shipping, and the part which does not consist of shipping is not merely ancillary to the business of shipping, such apportionment of any deficiency or loss shall be made by the Commissioners as may be necessary to limit the application of this section to such part of the business as consists of shipping ; and

(c) if in any such accounting period as aforesaid there has been a loss or the profits have not reached the point which would have involved liability to excess profits duty if the percentage standard had been adopted, the same amount shall, as respects the deficiency or loss or so much thereof as is affected by this section, be repaid or set off under subsection (3) of the said section thirty-eight as would have been repaid or set off if the percentage standard had been adopted.

(2) Any appeal under subsection (5) of section forty-five of the principal Act on any question arising under this section shall be to the Special Commissioners.

(3) In this section the expression "business of shipping" means the business carried on by an owner of ships, and for the purposes of this definition the expression " owner " includes any charterer to whom a ship is demised.