Income Tax Act, 1967.

PART XXIII

Purchase and Sale of Securities

Application of Part XXIII.

367.—(1) Subject as hereinafter provided, this Part relates to cases of a purchase by a person (in this Part referred to as the first buyer) after the 22nd day of April, 1959, of any securities and their subsequent sale by him, the result of the transaction being that interest becoming payable in respect of the securities (in this Part referred to as the interest) is receivable by the first buyer.

(2) This Part does not relate to cases where—

(a) the time elapsing between the purchase by the first buyer and his taking steps to dispose of the securities exceeded six months, or

(b) that time exceeded one month and, in the opinion of the Revenue Commissioners, the purchase and sale were each effected at the current market price and the sale was not effected in pursuance of an agreement or arrangement made before or at the time of the purchase.

(3) An appeal shall lie to the Special Commissioners with respect to any opinion of the Revenue Commissioners under subsection (2) (b) in like manner as an appeal would lie against an assessment to income tax, and the provisions of this Act relating to appeals shall apply and have effect accordingly.

(4) The reference in subsection (2) to the first buyer taking steps to dispose of the securities shall be construed—

(a) if he sold them in the exercise of an option he had acquired, as a reference to his acquisition of the option,

(b) in any other case, as a reference to his selling them.

(5) For the purposes of this Part a sale of securities similar to, and of the like nominal amount as, securities previously bought (hereinafter referred to as the original securities) shall be equivalent to a sale of the original securities, and subsection (4) shall apply accordingly; and where the first buyer bought parcels of similar securities at different times, a subsequent sale of any of the securities shall so far as may be be related to the last to be bought of the parcels, and then to the last but one, and so on:

Provided that a person shall be under no greater liability to tax by virtue of this subsection than he would have been under if instead of selling the similar securities he had sold the original securities.

(6) Where, at the time when a trade is, or is deemed to be, set up and commenced, any securities form part of the trading stock belonging to the trade, those securities shall be treated for the purposes of this section as having been sold at that time in the open market by the person to whom they belonged immediately before that time and as having been purchased at that time in the open market by the person thereafter engaged in carrying on the trade; and subject to the foregoing provisions of this subsection, where there is a change in the persons engaged in carrying on a trade which is not a change on which the trade is deemed to be discontinued, the provisions of this section shall apply in relation to the person so engaged after the change as if anything done to or by his predecessor had been done to or by him.

(7) For the purposes of this Part—

(a) “interest” includes a dividend;

(b) “person” includes any body of persons, and references to a person entitled to any exemption from income tax include, in a case of an exemption expressed to apply to income of a trust or fund, references to the persons entitled to make claims for the granting of that exemption;

(c) “securities” includes stocks and shares;

(d) securities shall be deemed to be similar if they entitle their holders to the same rights against the same persons as to capital and interest and the same remedies for the enforcement of those rights, notwithstanding any difference in the total nominal amounts of the respective securities or in the form in which they are held or the manner in which they can be transferred.