Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

354 Loans to buy land etc

(1) Subject to sections 355 to 358 and subsections (2) to (6) below, interest is eligible for relief under section 353 if it is paid by a person for the time being owning an estate or interest in land, or the property in a caravan or house-boat, in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland on a loan to defray money applied—

(a) in purchasing that estate, interest or property, or another estate, interest or property absorbed into, or given up to obtain, that estate, interest or property; or

(b) in improving or developing the land, or buildings on the land; or

(c) in paying off another loan, if interest on that other loan would have been eligible for relief under section 353 had the loan not been paid off (on the assumption, if the loan was free of interest, that it carried interest) or would have been so eligible apart from section 353(2).

(2) In this section and section 355—

(a) references to money applied in improving or developing land or buildings include references to payments in respect of maintenance or repairs incurred by reason of dilapidation attributable to a period before the estate or interest was acquired, but otherwise do not include references to payments in respect of maintenance or repairs, or any of the other payments mentioned in section 25(1); and

(b) references to money applied in improving or developing land include references to expenditure incurred or defrayed directly or indirectly in respect of street works, other than works of maintenance or repair, for any highway or road, or in Scotland any right of way, adjoining or serving the land.

(3) Interest is eligible for relief under section 353 in the case of a caravan only if the caravan—

(a) is a large caravan, or

(b) taken with the land on which it stands, is for the time being a rateable hereditament for the purposes of a relevant enactment and the owner or the wife or husband of the owner has as occupier of the caravan duly paid rates under the relevant enactment for the period in which the interest was paid.

In this subsection—

• “relevant enactment” means the [1967 c. 9] General Rate Act 1967, any corresponding enactment in force in Scotland or the Republic of Ireland or the [S.I. 1977/2157 (N.I. 28).] Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977; and

• “hereditament”, in relation to Scotland, means lands and heritages.

(4) References in this section and in section 355 to an estate or interest do not include references—

(a) to a rentcharge or, in Scotland, a superiority or the interest of a creditor in a contract of ground annual; or

(b) to the interest of a chargee or mortgagee or, in Scotland, the interest of a creditor in a charge or security of any kind over land.

(5) Where this section applies to a loan by reason of the land, caravan or house-boat concerned being used as a person’s only or main residence, and the borrower raises another loan to defray money to be applied as mentioned in subsection (1) above with a view to the use of other land or another caravan or house-boat as that person’s only or main residence and the disposal of the first-mentioned land, caravan or house-boat, then in relation to interest payable within 12 months from the making of the other loan, this section—

(a) shall continue to apply to the first-mentioned loan, whether or not the first-mentioned land, caravan or house-boat continues to be so used; and

(b) shall apply to the other loan to the same extent (if any) as if no interest were payable on the first-mentioned loan.

(6) If it appears to the Board reasonable to do so, having regard to all the circumstances of a particular case, they may direct that in relation to that case subsection (5) above shall have effect as if for the reference to 12 months there were substituted a reference to such longer period as meets the circumstances of that case.

(7) Where interest is payable by the tenant occupier of any property to the landlord in pursuance of arrangements whereby money advanced at interest by the landlord is applied by the tenant in purchasing the landlord’s estate or interest, or in the case of a caravan or house-boat the property in the caravan or house-boat, but that estate or interest or property is not to pass to the tenant until some time after the interest begins to be payable, this section and section 355(5) shall have effect in relation to the tenant as if he were the owner of the landlord’s estate, interest or property.