Finance Act 2019

Amendment of section 774 of Principal Act (certain approved schemes: exemptions and reliefs)

17. Section 774(6) of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (a):

“(aa) For the purposes of this section—

‘relevant contributor’ means a company (‘the first-mentioned company’) which pays contributions under an exempt approved scheme for the benefit of scheme members who are not its employees, where—

(i) the contributions are paid under the terms of a legally binding agreement between the first-mentioned company and another company or companies,

(ii) the agreement was entered into—

(I) between 2 or more companies (including the first-mentioned company) within a group,

(II) under a scheme of reconstruction or amalgamation,

(III) under a merger,

(IV) under a division, or

(V) under a joint venture,

(iii) the scheme members are either current or former employees of one of the parties to that agreement, and

(iv) the contributions would qualify for relief under paragraph (c) if the scheme members were employees of the first-mentioned company;

‘group’ means 2 or more companies which satisfy the conditions for group relief under section 411;

‘scheme of reconstruction or amalgamation’ has the same meaning as in section 615;

‘merger’ and ‘division’ have the same meaning as in section 638A;

‘joint venture’ means an agreement between 2 or more companies, other than within a group.”,

and

(b) in paragraph (b), by inserting “or relevant contributor” after “an employer”.