Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1968

Tax to be charged under Case IV of Schedule D in relation to the sale of certain shares.

20.—(1) Where the activities of a company consist of or include the construction or the securing of the construction of a building and after the construction has begun and not later than six years after its completion shares in the company are sold to a person who has, or in consequence of the sale will have, control of the company, and apart from this section the consideration for the sale would not be a receipt of an income nature in the hands of the seller, the consideration shall, if the conditions specified in subsection (2) are satisfied, be deemed to be income of the seller up to the amount specified in subsection (5), and shall be chargeable under Case IV of Schedule D accordingly.

(2) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are that—

(a) the shares are sold on or after the 11th day of May, 1965;

(b) at the time of the sale the company has (directly or indirectly) an interest in the building and the value of that interest and any interest which the company so has at that time in any other building (not being a building completed more than six years before that time nor one in relation to which the condition specified in paragraph (c) is not satisfied) the erection of which was carried out or secured by the company, amounts to one-fifth or more of the net assets of the company;

(c) on a notice for the purpose having been served on it by the inspector, the company has not shown, within twenty-one days after the date of the notice or within such further time as the Revenue Commissioners may have allowed, that the said interest is trading stock of a trade carried on by it and has been or will be disposed of by it in the normal course of that trade.

(3) Subsection (1) shall not apply if—

(a) the shares in the company are sold by a person or persons to another company and the shares in each company are held (directly or indirectly) by the same person or by the same persons in the same proportion, or

(b) the shares are sold by one company to another company and the shares in each company are held (directly or indirectly) by the same person or by the same persons in the same proportion,

regard being had in each case to any differences in the nature of the shares or the rights attaching thereto.

(4) Where before the sale of shares mentioned in subsection (1) the company—

(a) has disposed of its interest in the building, or of an interest which derives therefrom, to the person who is the purchaser of the shares, or to a company connected with the purchaser, or

(b) has disposed of any interest in the building to or in favour of any person, and the purchaser of the shares, or a company connected with the purchaser, acquires the interest, either before the sale or after the sale in pursuance of arrangements made not later than the sale,

subsection (1) shall apply as if the interest disposed of were still vested in the first-mentioned company at the time of the sale of the shares, and as if any assets of the company representing the consideration for the disposal of the interest were not assets of the company.

(5) The amount which under subsection (1) is to be deemed to be income of the seller is the appropriate proportion of the amount (if any) of the profits or gains of the company chargeable to tax which would have arisen if the interest referred to in paragraphs (b) and (c) of subsection (2) (or all such interests where there are more than one) had been sold at that time for a consideration equal to the following amount, that is to say, the amount of the proper consideration for all the issued shares in the company—

(a) reduced by any excess of the market value of the assets of the company other than the said interest or interests over the aggregate liabilities of the company at the time of the sale, or

(b) increased by any excess of the said aggregate liabilities over the said market value.

(6) For the purposes of this section the proper consideration for all the issued shares in a company shall be the actual consideration for the sale of shares mentioned in subsection (1) increased (unless that sale was of all the issued shares) in the proportion which the total number of issued shares bears to the number of shares sold:

Provided that where the issued shares of the company are not all of the same nature or do not all have the same rights attaching thereto and the said sale was not of all the issued shares, the proper consideration for all the issued shares in the company shall, for the purposes of this section, be taken to be the market value at the time of the sale of the shares of the interest or all the interests mentioned in subsection (5) reduced or, as the case may require, increased by the excess mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (5).

(7) For the purposes of subsection (5) the appropriate proportion, in relation to any sale of shares, is the proportion which the actual consideration for that sale bears to the proper consideration for all issued shares in the company, so however that where the proviso to the foregoing subsection has effect the appropriate proportion is such proportion as may be just having regard to the number and nature of the shares sold and the rights attaching thereto, as compared with the number and nature of all the issued shares in the company and the rights or different rights attaching thereto.

(8) Any tax chargeable on the seller by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this section and not paid by him shall be recoverable from the company, and where the seller is an individual the amount which (by virtue of subsection (1)) is deemed to be income of his shall be deemed for the purposes of this subsection to be the highest part of his income.

(9) Where, in consequence of a sale of shares, any amount would have, under subsection (1), been deemed to be income of the seller but for the circumstance that the condition specified in subsection (2)

(c) was not satisfied, and on the sixth anniversary of the sale any interest in a building such as is mentioned in subsection (2) (b) is still held by the company, then, income of the like amount shall be deemed to have been received by the company on the said anniversary and shall be chargeable under Case IV of Schedule D accordingly.

(10) If after the sale of the shares any receipts accrue to the company from the disposal, in the course of a trade of dealing in or developing land, of an interest in a building, being an interest which the company had at the time of the sale of the shares and with respect to which the profit which would have arisen on the disposal thereof was taken into account in arriving at the amount of income chargeable to tax by reference to the sale under the foregoing provisions of this section, the receipts shall be disregarded for income tax purposes if and to the extent that it is just so to do having regard to any tax charged under the said provisions.

(11) Where a building has been or has begun to be constructed by a company on land in which a company connected with that company has an interest and after the construction has been begun and not later than six years after its completion a person acquires control of the first company, then, as respects sales to that person of shares in the company having the interest in the land (whether effected before or after that person acquires control of the first company), the foregoing subsections shall apply as they apply to such a company as is therein mentioned but with the substitution for references to an interest in the building of references to an interest in the land.

(12) For the purposes of the foregoing subsections an uncompleted building shall be taken to include so much of any materials belonging to the company as are required for erecting the building, and a building (whether complete or not) shall be taken to include its site.

(13) For the purposes of this section—

(a) “share” shall be construed in relation to a company not limited by shares (whether or not it has a share capital) as including references to the interests of the member in the company as such whatever the form of that interest,

(b) the sale of rights attached to or forming part of a share shall be treated as a sale of a share, as if the rights included in the sale and those not included had been separate shares, and

(c) there shall be disregarded any building provided for use, and brought into use, for the purposes of a bona fide trade carried on by the company, other than a trade of—

(i) dealing in or developing land, or

(ii) the provision of services for occupiers of land an interest in which is held by the company.

(14) Where by virtue of this section the consideration for a sale of shares is deemed to be income of the seller and any securities of the company other than shares in the company are included in the sale at a price in excess of the company's liability on the securities, the excess shall be treated for the purposes of this section as part of the consideration for the sale of the shares.