BIM70590 - Business changes: changes in scale, nature or location of trade: general principles

Trades are rarely static and can change their nature over the years so as to be unrecognisable from their origins. A change in the scale and/or nature of a trade, if substantial enough and taking place over a short period of time, can cause the permanent discontinuance of one trade and the commencement of a new and different one.

This may be an issue in the context of, for example

• the cessation and commencement provisions ( BIM71000 onwards), or
• the rules for claiming losses carried forward ( BIM75500).

The question of whether there has been ‘a major change in the nature or conduct of a trade’ carried on by a company is also relevant in the context of ICTA88/S768 (CTM06370).