Finance Act, 1988

Amendment of section 39B (relief in relation to income from certain trading operations carried on in Custom House Docks Area) of Finance Act, 1980.

36.—(1) Subsection (7) (c) of section 39B (inserted by the Finance Act, 1987 ) of the Finance Act, 1980 , is hereby repealed and shall be deemed never to have been enacted.

(2) Subject to the provisions of subsections (6) and (7) of the said section 39B, the Minister for Finance may give to a company a certificate, within the meaning of subsection (2) of that section, having effect from the date on which it would have had effect but for the said subsection (7) (c).

(3) Subsection (6) of the said section 39B is hereby amended by the insertion after paragraph (iii) of the following paragraph—

“(iiia) dealing in commodity futures or commodity options on behalf of persons not ordinarily resident in the State, other than on behalf of persons who—

(I) carry on a trade in which commodities of a type which are the subject of the futures or options, as the case may be, are used in the course of the carrying on of the trade, or

(II) would be regarded for the purposes of the Corporation Tax Acts as connected with a person who carries on such a trade,”.

(4) (a) In this subsection—

“the Area” has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of the said section 39B;

“foreign life assurance business” means relevant trading operations within the meaning of the said section 39B consisting of life assurance business with policy holders and annuitants who reside outside the State;

“foreign unit trust business” means relevant trading operations within the meaning of the said section 39B consisting of the management of the investments of one or more qualifying unit trusts;

“qualifying unit trust” means a unit trust scheme—

(a) that is a registered unit trust scheme within the meaning of the Unit Trusts Act, 1972 ,

(b) the business of which—

(i) is carried on in the Area, or

(ii) is not so carried on but is carried on in the State and would be carried on in the Area but for circumstances outside the control of the person or persons carrying on the business,

and

(c) as respects which all holders of units in the scheme are persons resident outside the State;

“tax” means income tax, corporation tax or capital gains tax, as may be appropriate.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of the Tax Acts, the rate at which any tax is chargeable (before any credit is allowed for foreign tax) in respect of income arising or chargeable gains accruing from securities or possessions in any place outside the State that are investments of a foreign life assurance business or investments managed by a foreign unit trust business shall not exceed 10 per cent.