Section 91 and Schedule 45: Oil: Miscellaneous Amendments
Summary
1.Section 91 and Schedule 45 simplify a number of provisions relating to petroleum revenue tax (PRT) and make amendments to existing definitions.
Details of the Schedule
The Oil Taxation Act (OTA) 1975
2.Paragraph 1 removes the provision for allowing a participator to spread “supplemented” expenditure giving relief for up to 20 chargeable periods and the provision for allowing companies to claim certain expenditure incurred before the introduction of PRT.
3.Sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) amend Schedule 3 to OTA 1975 by omitting paragraphs 9 and 10 which allow participators to spread the relief they get for certain costs (supplemented expenditure) over a number of chargeable periods.
4.Sub-paragraph (4) amends Schedule 4 to OTA 1975 by omitting paragraph 3. This provision allowed companies to claim certain expenditure incurred before the introduction of PRT. Since such expenditure is subject to a six year time limit the legislation is no longer required.
Ota 1983
5.Paragraph 2 removes an alternative formula for calculating tariff receipts allowance from OTA 1983.
6.Sub-paragraph (2) omits section 9(3) and paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to OTA 1983. This applies an alternative formula for calculating tariff receipts allowance for chargeable periods ending on or before 30 June 1987 and is thus no longer required.
7.Sub-paragraph (3) removes the now redundant references to subsection (3) that appear elsewhere in section 9.
8.Sub-paragraph (4) omits sections 13 and 14 of, and Schedule 5 to OTA 1983 (transitional provision for expenditure incurred on or before 31 December 1983) as these rules are no longer applicable.
Finance Act (FA) 1993
9.Paragraph 3 addresses a renumbering issue in FA 1993.
The Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (ICTA)
10.Paragraph 4 amends the ring fence corporation tax (CT) legislation to fully align the definition of a consortium, for the purposes of determining whether or not companies are associated, with the general CT definition.
Background Note
11.This section and Schedule have repealed the following four items of legislation:
spreading of supplement (paragraph 9 of Schedule 3 to OTA 1975) allows companies to elect to spread relief for qualifying “supplemented” expenditure for up to 20 chargeable periods. The legislation does not currently appear to serve any useful purpose;
pre-PRT expenditure (paragraph 3 of Schedule 4 to OTA 1975) applies to certain expenditure incurred prior to 13 November 1974. The normal time limit for claiming expenditure for PRT is six years and in any event HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is not aware of any outstanding claims under this legislation;
Tariff Receipts Allowance – alternative calculation (section 9 of OTA 1983) provides a volume based allowance against tariff receipts similar to that of the Oil Allowance being relieved against sales of oil. Section 9(3) of OTA 1983 provides an alternative calculation for chargeable periods ending on or before 30 June 1987. The legislation is relatively complicated and is no longer applicable; and
transitional provisions for certain rules within OTA 1983 – section 13 and Schedule 5 to this Act provide transitional rules for periods ending before or straddling 1 July 1982 in respect of the application of these new rules. These transitional rules are no longer applicable.
12.In addition, the section and Schedule make two further changes:
the first involves renumbering Schedule 20A to FA 1993 (as inserted by Part 1 of Schedule 33 to FA 2008) as Schedule 20B to that act as there already exists a Schedule 20A (Lloyd underwriters), which was inserted by FA 2004; and
13.the second involves an amendment to section 502 of ICTA (interpretation of Chapter 5 of Part 12), in section (3A) to fully align the ring fence corporation tax definition of a consortium, for the purposes of determining whether or not companies are associated, with the general corporation tax definition..
