CFM17210a - Repos: taxation: text of section 730A ICTA88

This guidance describes the treatment of repos for income tax and capital gains tax purposes, and for corporation tax purposes where the original owner transfers the securities to the interim holder before 1 October 2007

Section 730A

Section 730A applies wherever one person sells securities to another and undertakes under the same or a related agreement to repurchase them at a future date. The rule also applies where the repurchase mechanism is the exercise of an option or where the repurchaser is a person connected with the vendor. The relevant text is below:

730A.-Treatment of price differential on sale and repurchase of securities.

(1) Subject to subsection (8) below, this section applies where-


  1. a person ("the original owner") has transferred any securities to another person ("the interim holder") under an agreement to sell them;

  2. the original owner or a person connected with him is required to buy them back either-

(i) in pursuance of an obligation to do so imposed by that agreement or by any related agreement, or

(ii) in consequence of the exercise of an option acquired under that agreement or any related agreement; and

  1. the sale price and the repurchase price are different.

(8) Except where regulations under section 737E otherwise provide, this section does not apply if-


  1. the agreement or agreements under which provision is made for the sale and repurchase are not such as would be entered into by persons dealing with each other at arm's length; or

  2. all of the benefits or risks arising from fluctuations, before the repurchase takes place, in the market value of the securities sold accrue to, or fall on, the interim holder.