Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

709 Meaning of “tax advantage” and other expressions

(1) In this Chapter “tax advantage” means a relief or increased relief from, or repayment or increased repayment of, tax, or the avoidance or reduction of a charge to tax or an assessment to tax or the avoidance of a possible assessment thereto, whether the avoidance or reduction is effected by receipts accruing in such a way that the recipient does not pay or bear tax on them, or by a deduction in computing profits or gains.

(2) In this Chapter—

• “company” includes any body corporate;

• “securities”—

  (a)

  includes shares and stock, and

  (b)

  in relation to a company not limited by shares (whether or not it has a share capital) includes also a reference to the interest of a member of the company as such, whatever the form of that interest;

• “trading stock” has the same meaning as in section 100(1);

• “transaction in securities” includes transactions, of whatever description, relating to securities, and in particular—

  (i)

  the purchase, sale or exchange of securities;

  (ii)

  the issuing or securing the issue of, or applying or subscribing for, new securities;

  (iii)

  the altering, or securing the alteration of, the rights attached to securities;

  and references to dividends include references to other qualifying distributions and to interest.

(3) In section 704—

(a) references to profits include references to income, reserves or other assets;

(b) references to distribution include references to transfer or realisation (including application in discharge of liabilities); and

(c) references to the receipt of consideration include references to the receipt of any money or money’s worth.

(4) For the purposes of section 704 an amount received by way of dividend shall be treated as abnormal if the Board, the Special Commissioners or the tribunal, as the case may be, are satisfied—

(a) in the case of a dividend at a fixed rate, that it substantially exceeds the amount which the recipient would have received if the dividend had accrued from day to day and he had been entitled only to so much of the dividend as accrued while he held the securities, so however that an amount shall not be treated as abnormal by virtue only of this paragraph if during the six months beginning with the purchase of the securities the recipient does not sell or otherwise dispose of, or acquire an option to sell, any of those securities or any securities similar to those securities; or

(b) in any case, that it substantially exceeds a normal return on the consideration provided by the recipient for the relevant securities, that is to say, the securities in respect of which the dividend was received and, if those securities are derived from securities previously acquired by the recipient, the securities which were previously acquired.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4)(a) above securities shall be deemed to be similar if they entitle their holders to the same rights against the same persons as to capital and interest and the same remedies for the enforcement of those rights, notwithstanding any difference in the total nominal amounts of the respective securities or in the form in which they are held or the manner in which they can be transferred, and for those purposes rights guaranteed by the Treasury shall be treated as rights against the Treasury.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (4)(b) above—

(a) if the consideration provided by the recipient for any of the relevant securities was in excess of their market value at the time he acquired them, or if no consideration was provided by him for any of the relevant securities, the recipient shall be taken to have provided for those securities consideration equal to their market value at the time he acquired them; and

(b) in determining whether an amount received by way of dividend exceeds a normal return, regard shall be had to the length of time previous to the receipt of that amount that the recipient first acquired any of the relevant securities and to any dividends and other distributions made in respect of them during that time.