Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

333 Personal equity plans

(1) The Treasury may make regulations providing that an individual who invests under a plan shall be entitled to relief from income tax in respect of the investments.

(2) The regulations shall set out the conditions subject to which plans are to operate and the extent to which investors are to be entitled to relief from tax.

(3) In particular, the regulations may—

(a) specify the description of individuals who may invest and the kind of investments they may make;

(b) specify maximum investment limits and minimum periods for which investments are to be held;

(c) provide that investments are to be held by persons (“plan managers”) on behalf of investors;

(d) specify how relief from tax is to be claimed by, and granted to, investors or plan managers on their behalf;

(e) provide that plans and plan managers must be such as are approved by the Board;

(f) specify the circumstances in which approval may be granted and withdrawn.

(4) The regulations may include provision—

(a) that in prescribed circumstances—

(i) an investor under a plan shall cease to be, and be treated as not having been, entitled to relief from tax in respect of the investments; and

(ii) he or the plan manager concerned (depending on the terms of the regulations) shall account to the Board for tax from which relief has already been given on the basis that the investor was so entitled;

(b) that an investor under a plan or the plan manager concerned (depending on the terms of the regulations) shall account to the Board for tax from which relief has been given in circumstances such that the investor was not entitled to it;

(c) adapting, or modifying the effect of, any enactment relating to income tax in order to—

(i) secure that investors under plans are entitled to relief from tax in respect of investments;

(ii) secure that investors under plans cease to be, and are treated as not having been, so entitled;

(iii) secure that investors under plans or plan managers account for tax as mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) above;

(d) that a person who is, or has at any time been, either an investor under a plan or a plan manager—

(i) shall comply with any notice which is served on him by the Board and which requires him within a prescribed period to make available for the Board’s inspection documents (of a prescribed kind) relating to a plan or to investments which are or have been held under it;

(ii) shall, within a prescribed period of being required to do so by the Board, furnish to the Board information (of a prescribed kind) about a plan or about investments which are or have been held under it;

(e) generally for the purpose of bringing plans into existence, and generally for the purpose of the administration of plans and the administration of income tax and corporation tax in relation to them.

(5) In this section “prescribed” means prescribed by the regulations.