(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations provide that relief that would otherwise be granted by specified rating Regulations is not granted, from 1 April 2021, to the extent that the relief when added to any other prescribed relief would exceed 325,000 Special Drawing Rights. This is the threshold set for de minimis relief by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (defined by regulation 2), entered into on 30 December 2020 between the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and the United Kingdom.
Regulation 3(2) lists the Regulations to which the restriction on grant of relief is to apply.
Regulation 4 sets out which previous grants of relief and assistance are to be used to calculate whether relief would exceed the limit set by regulation 3(3). Regard is had to relief and assistance awarded over a period of three fiscal years. That looks at relief under the Regulations listed in regulation 3(2), at relief and assistance prior to 2021 that would have been taken into account for state aid purposes, and at “subsidies” as defined by the Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
Regulation 5 makes a consequential amendment, so that from 1 April 2021 the provision in these Regulations replaces a restriction in other Regulations that applies to grant of reliefs within the non-domestic rating system.