Finance Act, 1977

FIRST SCHEDULE

Amendment of Enactments

PART I

Amendments Consequential on Amendment of Section 236 of Income Tax Act, 1967

Section 2 .

1. In paragraphs 1 and 4 (inserted by the Finance Act, 1974 ) of Schedule 5 to the Income Tax Act, 1967 , “£2,000” shall be substituted for “£1,500” in each place where it occurs.

2. The following Table shall be substituted for the Table to the said paragraph 4—

Year of Birth

Sum

Percentage

£

1916 or 1917

2133

16

1914 or 1915

2266

17

1912 or 1913

2400

18

1910 or 1911

2533

19

1909 or any earlier year

2667

20

PART II

Amendments Consequential on Changes in Rates of Tax

Section 5 .

1. The Income Tax Act, 1967 , is, in relation to income tax for the year 1977-78 and subsequent years of assessment, hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in section 1 (1)—

(i) the following shall be substituted for the definition of “higher rates”,

“‘higher rates’, in relation to tax, means the rates of tax, known by that description, provided for in section 5 of the Finance Act, 1977;”,

(ii) the following shall be inserted after the definition of “incapacitated person”:

“‘initial rate’, in relation to tax, means the rate of tax, known by that description, provided for in section 5 of the Finance Act, 1977;”,

(iii) the following shall be substituted for the definition of “reduced rate”:

“‘reduced rate’, in relation to tax, means the rate of tax, known by that description, provided for in section 5 of the Finance Act, 1977;”,

(iv) the following shall be substituted for the definition of “standard rate”:

“‘standard rate’, in relation to tax, means the rate of tax, known by that description, provided for in section 5 of the Finance Act, 1977;”;

(b) in section 153 (1), the following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (dd)—

“(dd) he shall not be entitled to the benefit of the provision contained in section 5 of the Finance Act, 1977, whereby part of taxable income is in certain circumstances chargeable at a rate or rates less than the standard rate and, accordingly, he shall be charged to tax at the standard rate in respect of that part of his taxable income in respect of which he would otherwise be charged to tax at a rate or rates less than the standard rate.”;

(c) in section 497, for “reduced rate”—

(i) where it firstly occurs, there shall be substituted “initial rate or the reduced rate”, and

(ii) where it secondly occurs, there shall be substituted “initial rate or the reduced rate, as appropriate”;

(d) in section 525 (1), the following subparagraph shall be substituted for subparagraph (i):

“(i) in any assessment to be made on the individual, he shall be treated as having paid tax—

(a) at the initial rate on so much thereof as is chargeable at the initial rate,

(b) at the reduced rate on so much thereof as is chargeable at the reduced rate, and

(c) at the standard rate on so much thereof as is chargeable at the standard or the higher rates;”.

2. The Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , is, as respects distributions made on or after the 6th day of April, 1977, hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in section 66 (3) (b)—

(i) in subparagraphs (i) and (ii), for “at a rate or rates higher than the reduced rate” there shall be substituted “at the standard rate or the higher rates”,

(ii) for subparagraph (iii) there shall be substituted:

“(iii) in relation to so much of his income which is represented by the said distribution (or the aggregate of the said distributions, as the case may be) as is charged to tax at a rate lower than the standard rate, be tax at that lower rate on the amount charged at that lower rate together with tax on the same amount at a rate per cent. equal to

D × E

______

F

where—

D is the difference between the standard rate per cent. for the year of assessment and the lower rate per cent. at which the amount is charged and, for this purpose, ‘the lower rate per cent.’ means the rate at which the amount is charged to tax, being a rate less than the standard rate,

E is the rate of imputation per cent. for the year of assessment, and for this purpose ‘the rate of imputation per cent.’ for a year of assessment means an amount determined by the formula

100

_____

A

where A and B have the same meanings as in subsection (2), and

F is the standard rate per cent. for the year of assessment, and”,

(b) in section 82 (6), by the substitution of—

(i) “at a rate lower than the standard rate” for “at the reduced rate”, and

(ii) “of that lower rate” for “of the reduced rate”.

PART III

Amendments Consequential on Changes in Personal Reliefs

Section 6 .

Section 138 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , is hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions:

(a) in subsection (1), for “£1,010” in each place where it occurs, there shall be substituted “£1,100”, for “£620” there shall be substituted “£665” and for “£1,125” there shall be substituted “£1,215”, and

(b) in subsection (2), for “£620” in each place where it occurs, there shall be substituted “£665”, and for “£685” there shall be substituted “£735”.

PART IV

Miscellaneous Amendments in Relation to Corporation Tax

Section 42 .

1. The Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , is hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in section 58 (10), “182 (relief in respect of unrelieved losses and capital allowances carried forward from the year 1975-76),” shall be inserted after “sections”,

(b) in section 109 (1) “this Part” shall be substituted for “that section”,

(c) in section 176 (6) (a), subparagraph (iii) shall be deleted,

(d) in the Fifth Schedule, in paragraph 1 (6), “paragraph” shall be substituted for “section”.

2. The Finance Act, 1968 , is hereby amended by the substitution in section 37 (4) of “33” for “33 (2)” (inserted by the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 ).

3. The Finance Act, 1972 , is hereby amended by the substitution in subsection (4) (inserted for corporation tax by the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 ) of section 16 of “33” for “33 (2)”.

4. The Finance Act, 1973 , is hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in subsection (9) (inserted for corporation tax by the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 ) of section 24, “33” shall be substituted for “33 (2)”,

(b) in section 26, as amended for corporation tax by the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 ,

(i) “(c)” shall be substituted for “(e)”, and

(ii) “33” shall be substituted for “33 (2)”.

5. The Finance Act, 1974 , is hereby amended by the substitution in section 55 (4) of “33” for “15 or 33 (2)” (inserted by the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 ).

PART V

Amendment of Provisions Relating to Relief in respect of Increase in Stock Values

Section 43 .

1. The Finance Act, 1975 , is hereby amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in section 31—

(i) the following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (b) of subsection (4):

“(b) There shall be made such assessments, additional assessments, reductions of assessments or repayments of tax as may in any case be required in order to give effect to this section.”,

(ii) in relation to accounting periods which end on or after the 6th day of April, 1974, the following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (8) (inserted by section 26 (1) (a) (iii) of the Finance Act, 1976 ):

“(8) Where, in relation to an accounting period of a company which ends on a date in the year 1974-75 or 1975-76, the company's opening stock value exceeds its closing stock value, the excess (in this section referred to as the company's ‘decrease in stock value’) shall be deducted from the amount of the company's increase in stock value in the next succeeding accounting period in which such an increase occurs and the amount which remains after such deduction shall, for the purposes of subsection (4) (a), be the company's increase in stock value in that succeeding accounting period:

Provided that—

(a) where the amount of a company's decrease in stock value in an accounting period exceeds the amount of the company's increase in stock value in the next succeeding accounting period in which such an increase occurs, the excess shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be a decrease in stock value in that next succeeding accounting period and shall be deducted from the amount of the company's increase in stock value in the next succeeding accounting period in which such an increase occurs, and so on;

(b) the provisions of this subsection shall not apply so as to affect the amount of any assessment for the year 1974-75;

(c) where a deduction (in this paragraph referred to subsequently as ‘the lesser deduction’) to which a company is entitled under this section in the computation of its trading profits for an accounting period which ends on a date in the year 1975-76 is less than the amount of the deduction (in this paragraph referred to subsequently as ‘the greater deduction’) to which the company would have been entitled under this section in the computation of its trading profits for that accounting period but for the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the company may claim, not later than the 31st day of December, 1977, that the greater deduction shall be made in the computation of its trading profits for that accounting period, but in that case the value of its trading stock at the beginning of the period of account immediately following the period of account the end of which coincides with the end of that accounting period or which is current at the end of that accounting period shall for the purposes of the Tax Acts and of the enactments relating to corporation profits tax, other than this section, be treated as reduced by an amount equal to the excess of the greater deduction over the lesser deduction, and that amount shall, for the purposes of section 31A (8) (a), be regarded as an amount which has been deducted from the company's increase in stock value in that accounting period.”,

(iii) the following subsection shall be added:

“(9) Where in any accounting period which ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1973, a company carries on a trade which consists partly of trading operations of any of the classes mentioned in the definition of ‘trade’ in subsection (1) (hereinafter referred to as ‘qualifying trading operations’) and partly of other trading operations, the company shall be regarded as carrying on a trade which consists wholly or mainly of qualifying trading operations if, but only if, the total amount receivable by the company from sales made in the course of the qualifying trading operations in the accounting period is not less than 75 per cent. of the total amount receivable by the company from all sales made in the course of its trade in the accounting period.”,

(b) in section 31A (inserted by section 26 of the Finance Act, 1976 )—

(i) in the definition of “accounting period” in subsection (1) “, which ends on a date in the period from the 6th day of April, 1975, to the 5th day of April, 1976” shall be deleted,

(ii) the following proviso shall be substituted for the proviso to subsection (4) (a):

“Provided that—

(i) in no case shall the amount of the deduction as so computed exceed—

(I) where the accounting period of the company ends before the 6th day of April, 1976, the amount of the company's trading income for that period, and

(II) where the accounting period of the company ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1976, the amount of the company's trading income for that period after all reductions of income for that period by virtue of sections 16 and 18 of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , and after all deductions and additions for that period by virtue of section 14 of that Act,

(ii) the company's trading income to be taken into account in computing a deduction shall be that income before any deduction is made under this section or the Fifth Schedule, and

(iii) a deduction shall not be allowed under the provisions of this section in computing a company's trading income for any accounting period which ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1977.”,

(iii) the following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (b) of subsection (4):

“(b) There shall be made such assessments, additional assessments, reductions of assessments or repayments of tax as may in any case be required in order to give effect to this section.”,

(iv) in relation to accounting periods which end on or after the 6th day of April, 1975, the following subsections shall be substituted for subsection (7):

“(7) Where in relation to an accounting period a company's opening stock value exceeds its closing stock value, the amount of the excess (in this section referred to as the company's ‘decrease in stock value’) shall, if the accounting period ends on a date before the 6th day of April, 1977, be treated in the computation of the company's trading income for the purposes of corporation tax, as a trading receipt of the company's trade for that accounting period:

Provided that the amount which is treated as a trading receipt of the company's trade for any accounting period shall not exceed an amount determined by the formula

A+B − C

where—

A is the aggregate amount of the deductions which, under the provisions of this section, the company was entitled to make in computing its trading income for the preceding accounting periods,

B is the aggregate amount of the deductions which, by virtue of the provisions of section 26 (1) (a) (i) of the Finance Act, 1976 , the company was entitled to make in computing its trading income for the purposes of income tax, and

C is the aggregate of the amounts which, under this subsection, were treated as trading receipts of the company's trade for the preceding accounting periods.

(8) (a) This subsection applies to—

(i) any amount which under section 31 (8) would fall to be deducted from a company's increase in stock value but which has not been so deducted, and

(ii) any amount which by reason of the proviso to subsection (7) is not treated as a trading receipt of the company's trade.

(b) An amount to which this subsection applies shall be deducted—

(i) if it is an amount referred to in paragraph (a) (i), from the company's increase in stock value in the earliest accounting period in which such an increase occurs, and

(ii) if it is an amount referred to in paragraph (a) (ii), from the company's increase in stock value in the next succeeding accounting period in which such an increase occurs, and the amount which remains after such deduction shall, for the purposes of subsection (4) (a), be the company's increase in stock value in that accounting period:

Provided that—

(I) where any amount to which this subsection applies exceeds the amount of the increase in stock value from which it is to be deducted, the excess shall be deemed to be a decrease in stock value in the accounting period in which such increase occurs and shall be deducted from the amount of the company's increase in stock value in the next succeeding accounting period in which there is an increase in stock value and so on;

(II) where a deduction (in this paragraph referred to subsequently as ‘the lesser deduction’) to which a company is entitled under this section in the computation of its trading income for an accounting period which ends before the 6th day of April, 1976, is less than the amount of the deduction (in this paragraph referred to subsequently as ‘the greater deduction’) to which the company would have been entitled under this section in the computation of its trading profits for that accounting period but for the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the company may claim, not later than the 31st day of December, 1977, that the greater deduction shall be made in the computation of its trading income for that accounting period, but in that case the value of its trading stock at the beginning of the period of account immediately following the period of account the end of which coincides with the end of that accounting period or which is current at the end of that accounting period shall, for the purposes of the Tax Acts, other than this section, be treated as reduced by an amount equal to the excess of the greater deduction over the lesser deduction, and that amount shall, for the purposes of paragraph (b) of this subsection, be regarded as an amount which has been deducted from the company's increase in stock value in that accounting period.

(9) In the computation of a company's trading income for the purposes of corporation tax for any accounting period which ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1977, in which there is a decrease in stock value, there shall be treated as a trading receipt of the company's trade for that accounting period the amount (if any) by which A exceeds the aggregate of B and C where—

A is the aggregate amount of the company's decreases in stock value in all accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1977,

B is the aggregate amount of the company's increases in stock value in all accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1977, and

C is the aggregate of the amounts which under this subsection are treated as trading receipts of the company's trade for preceding accounting periods:

Provided that the amount which, by virtue of this subsection, is treated as a trading receipt of the company's trade for any accounting period shall not exceed an amount determined by the formula

D+E − F

where—

D is the aggregate amOunt of the deductions which, under the provisions of this section, the company was entitled to make in computing its trading income,

E is the aggregate amount of the deductions which, under the provisions of section 26 (1) (a) (i) of the Finance Act, 1976 , the company was entitled to make in computing its trading income for the purposes of income tax, and

F is the aggregate of the amounts which, under the provisions of this section, were treated as trading receipts of the trade for preceding accounting periods.

(10) Where in an accounting period a company ceases to carry on a trade or ceases to be resident in the State or ceases to be within the charge to tax under Case I of Schedule D in respect of a trade, the company's closing stock value shall, for the purposes of subsections (7) and (9), be deemed to be nil.

(11) Where in any accounting period which ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1975, a company carries on a trade which consists partly of trading operations of any of the classes mentioned in the definition of ‘trade’ in subsection (1) (hereinafter referred to as ‘qualifying trading operations’) and partly of other trading operations the company shall be regarded as carrying on a trade which consists wholly or mainly of qualifying trading operations if, but only if, the total amount receivable by the company from sales made in the course of the qualifying trading operations in the accounting period is not less than 75 per cent. of the total amount receivable by the company from all sales made in the course of its trade in the accounting period.”,

(c) in the Third Schedule—

(i) in paragraph 1 (1)—

(I) “or, as the case may be, the company's decrease in stock value” shall be inserted after “increase in stock value”, and

(II) “or, as the case may be, subsection (8)” shall be inserted after “subsection (2)”,

(ii) in paragraph 2—

(I) the following subparagraph shall be inserted after subparagraph (1):

“(1A) In any case where paragraph 1 (1) applies, a company's decrease in stock value in the accounting period shall be determined for the purposes of section 31 by the formula

A (O − C)

__________

N

where—

A, O, C and N have the same meanings as in subparagraph (1):

Provided that in any case where the accounting period mentioned in section 12 (8) of the Finance Act, 1976 , is comprised in the company's reference period, the decrease in stock value in any accounting period which is comprised in that reference period shall be determined as if N (instead of being the number of months in the reference period) were the number of months in the period from the beginning of the reference period to the end of the accounting period so mentioned.”, and

(II) “or, as the case may be, where a company's decrease in stock value in an accounting period falls to be determined in accordance with subparagraph (1A),” shall be inserted in subparagraph (2) after “in accordance with subparagraph (1),”,

(d) in the Fifth Schedule to the Finance Act, 1975 (inserted by section 26 of the Finance Act, 1976 )—

(i) in paragraph 1 (1)—

(I) “or, as the case may be, the company's decrease in stock value” shall be inserted after “increase in stock value”, and

(II) “or, as the case may be, subsection (7)” shall be inserted after “subsection (2)”,

(ii) in paragraph 2—

(I) the following subparagraph shall be inserted after subparagraph (1):

“(1A) In any case where paragraph 1 (1) applies, a company's decrease in stock value in the accounting period shall be determined for the purposes of section 31A by the formula

A (O − C)

__________

N

where—

A, O, C and N have the same meanings as in subparagraph (1):

Provided that in any case where the accounting period mentioned in section 31A (10) is comprised in the company's reference period, the decrease in stock value in any accounting period which is comprised in that reference period shall be determined as if N (instead of being the number of months in the reference period) were the number of months in the period from the beginning of the reference period to the end of the accounting period so mentioned.”, and

(II) “or, as the case may be, where a company's decrease in stock value in an accounting period falls to be determined in accordance with subparagraph (1A),” shall be inserted in subparagraph (2) after “in accordance with subparagraph (1),”.

2. Section 12 of the Finance Act, 1976 , shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph:

(a) in subsection (3) “1977-78” shall be substituted for “1976-77”,

(b) with effect as on and from the 6th day of April, 1976, the following subsections shall be substituted for subsection (5)—

“(5) In the computation of a person's trading income for an accounting period in which there is a decrease in stock value and which ends on a date in the year 1976-77, the amount of that decrease shall be treated as a trading receipt of the trade for that accounting period:

Provided that the amount which is so treated shall not exceed the aggregate amount of the deductions which the person was entitled to make under this section in computing his trading income for accounting periods which ended on a date in the year 1975-76.

(6) In the computation of a person's trading income for any accounting period in which there is a decrease in stock value and which ends on or after the 6th day of April, 1977, there shall be treated as a trading receipt of the trade for that accounting period the amount (if any) by which A exceeds the aggregate of B and C

where—

A is the aggregate amount of the person's decreases in stock value in all accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1977,

B is the aggregate amount of the person's increases in stock value in all accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1977, and

C is the aggregate of the amounts which are treated as trading receipts of the person's trade for preceding accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1977:

Provided that the amount which, by virtue of this subsection, is treated as a trading receipt of the person's trade for any accounting period shall not exceed an amount determined by the formula

D−E

where—

D is the aggregate amount of the deductions which, under the provisions of this section, the person was entitled to make in computing his trading income for accounting periods which ended on or after the 6th day of April, 1975, and

E is the aggregate of the amounts which under the provisions of this section, were treated as trading receipts of the trade for preceding accounting periods.

(7) Where a deduction allowed by virtue of this section in computing a person's trading profits of a trade for an accounting period has effect for the year 1977-78—

(a) the person shall not be entitled to relief under section 309 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , for the year 1978-79 or any later year in respect of a loss sustained in the trade before the 6th day of April, 1977,

(b) the person shall not be entitled to relief under section 311 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , for the year 1976-77 or any earlier year in respect of a loss sustained in the trade, and

(c) the provisions of section 241 (3) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , or of that section as applied by any other provision of the Income Tax Acts, shall not apply as respects a capital allowance or part of a capital allowance which is, or is deemed to be, all or part of a capital allowance for the year 1977-78 and to which full effect has not been given in that year owing to there being no profits or gains chargeable for that year or an insufficiency of profits or gains chargeable for that year.

(8) Where in an accounting period a person ceases to carry on a trade or ceases to be resident in the State or ceases to be within the charge to tax under Case I of Schedule D in respect of a trade, the person's closing stock value shall, for the purposes of subsections (5) and (6), be deemed to be nil.

(9) The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply to a trade carried on by a partnership as they apply to a trade carried on by a person.”.