Finance Act, 1959

Manner of granting, and effect of, allowances made by way of discharge or repayment of tax.

59.—(1) Where, under any of the provisions of this Part of this Act, an allowance falls to be made to a person for any year of assessment which is to be given by way of discharge or repayment of tax, and is to be available, or available primarily, against a specified class of income, the amount of the allowance shall be deducted from or set off against income of his of that class for that year of assessment, and, if the amount to be allowed is greater than the amount of his income of that class for that year of assessment, the balance shall be deducted from or set off against his income of that class for the next year of assessment, and so on for subsequent years of assessment, and tax shall be discharged or repaid accordingly:

Provided that where the allowance is available primarily against income of the specified class and the amount of the allowance is greater than the amount of the person's income of that class for the first-mentioned year of assessment, he may, by notice in writing given to the inspector of taxes not later than one year after the end of the year of assessment, elect that the excess shall be deducted from or set off against his other income for that year of assessment, and it shall be deducted from or set off against that income and tax discharged or repaid accordingly and only the excess, if any, of the amount of the allowance over all his income for that year of assessment shall be deducted from or set off against his income of the specified class for succeeding years.

(2) Subsection (2) of section 5 of the Income Tax Act, 1918, shall apply in relation to the allowances mentioned in subsection (1) of this section as it applies in relation to the allowances and adjustments mentioned in that subsection.

(3) Any claim for such an allowance as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall be made to and determined by the inspector of taxes, but any person aggrieved by any decision of the inspector of taxes on any such claim may, on giving notice in writing to the said inspector within twenty-one days after the notification to him of the decision, appeal to the Special Commissioners.

(4) The Special Commissioners shall hear and determine an appeal to them under subsection (3) of this section as if it were an appeal against an assessment to income tax, and the provisions of the Income Tax Acts relating to the rehearing of an appeal and the statement of a case for the opinion of the High Court on a point of law, shall, with the necessary modifications, apply accordingly.

(5) If any person, for the purpose of obtaining for himself or any other person any relief from or repayment of tax in respect of such an allowance as is mentioned in subsecton (1) of this section, knowingly makes any false statement or false representation, he shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred pounds.