Finance Act, 2000

Relief for blind persons.

11.— As respects the year of assessment 2000-2001 and subsequent years of asessment, the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following for section 468:

“Relief for blind persons.

468.—(1) In this section—

‘appropriate percentage’, in relation to a year of assessment, means a percentage equal to the standard rate of tax for that year;

‘blind person’ means a person whose central visual acuity does not exceed 6/60 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose central visual acuity exceeds 6/60 in the better eye or in both eyes but is accompanied by a limitation in the fields of vision that is such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees;

‘specified amount’, in relation to an individual to whom this section applies for a year of assessment, means—

(a) £3,000, in a case where either the individual or his or her spouse is a blind person, or

(b) £6,000, in a case where the individual and his or her spouse are both blind persons.

(2) This section applies to an individual for a year of assessment where the individual proves that—

(a) he or she was for the whole or any part of the year of assessment a blind person, or

(b) where he or she is assessed to tax in accordance with section 1017, either or both he or she and his or her spouse was for the whole or any part of the year of assessment a blind person.

(3) The income tax to be charged on an individual to whom this section applies, other than in accordance with section 16(2), for a year of assessment shall be reduced by an amount which is the lesser of—

(a) an amount equal to the appropriate percentage of the specified amount in relation to the individual for that year, or

(b) the amount which reduces that income tax to nil.”,

and

(b) in the Table to section 458—

(i) by the deletion of “Section 468” from Part 1, and

(ii) by the insertion, in Part 2, after “Section 466A” (inserted by this Act) of “Section 468”.