1832.This section provides that a group UK REIT or a company UK REIT may bring a joint venture company (including a non-UK joint venture company) into the regime if certain conditions are met. It is based on section 138(1) and (3) of FA 2006.
1833.This section enacts parts of SI 2006/2866. See Change 43 in Annex 1.
1834.Subsection (1)provides that the principal company of a group UK REIT may give notice that the Part is to apply in relation to property rental business carried on by a joint venture company. Subsection (2) makes similar provision in relation to a company UK REIT.
1835.Giving a notice under subsection (2) does not mean that the company UK REIT is treated as giving a group notice under section 523(1). So it is not required to bring all its subsidiaries into the UK REIT regime.
1836.Condition 7 of regulations 3(1) and 10(1) SI 2006/2866 provides that, in order for a notice to be made in respect of a joint venture company, the joint venture company must satisfy the balance of business tests in section 108 of FA 2006. But a joint venture notice must be made at the beginning of the accounting period and the balance of business tests cannot be satisfied until the end of the accounting period. So it is unclear when a notice can be made.
1837.The balance of business tests are rewritten in section 591, putting joint venture companies on the same basis as joint venture groups. Condition 7 is not rewritten.
1838.Subsection (6)(b) requires the “consent” of the joint venture company. This requirement replaces the need for the notice to be “signed by the company secretary or a director”. So the section is consistent with the possibilities that the notice may be given electronically and that, following the Companies Act 2006, the company may not have a company secretary or a director.
1839.Subsection (6)(d) provides that the notice must be given to an “officer of Revenue and Customs” rather than to “the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs”. See Change 5 in Annex 1.