Most traders who transfer a business to a company, or a
partnership, are entitled to carry forward any unused trading
losses. ICTA88/S386 and ITA07/S86 applies to the transfer of a
business to a company, and where an individual transfers the
business to a partnership of which they are a member ICTA88/S385
and ITA07/S83 will generally apply to allow loss to be carried
forward. However, these reliefs do not apply in the context of a
Lloyd’s conversion. There is no transfer of a business as
required for the trade transfer relief, and trade carry forward
relief is not available because the SLP does not succeed to the
trade previously carried on by the individual.
The technical reason for this is that in the Lloyd’s
“interavailability” rules under which most conversions
take place there is no statutory “transfer of insurance
business” as defined in the regulatory provisions of the
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Name’s assets
are transferred to the new vehicle but the existing liabilities
remain with the Name. In addition, under Lloyd’s three year
accounting system there is a period of overlap when the Name trades
in both limited and unlimited liability form, so the necessary
continuity of the Name’s trade by the Nameco or SLP/LLP is
absent.
TCGA92/S162 provides for deferral of charges to capital
gains tax where a business is transferred to a company and applies
in similar circumstances to trade transfer relief. The capital
gains legislation is worded differently, but the circumstances in
which relief is available are essentially the same. Section 162
requires the transfer of the business as a going concern, whereas
in a Lloyd’s conversion there is no transfer of the business,
only of the assets of the business (usually in stages).
FA04 (as amended by SI2006/111) introduced new reliefs,
broadly equivalent to the income tax and capital gains tax trade
transfer reliefs for Names who convert to underwriting via a
corporate member (meaning here, as in Lloyd’s rules,
incorporated companies, SLPs and LLPs). A Name who transfers
underwriting business to a corporate member under a Lloyd’s
conversion scheme, and who meets all the relevant conditions, can
claim the following reliefs
