OT21103 - Corporation Tax Ring Fence and Supplementary Charge

Treatment of ACT: Redeemable Preference Shares

To prevent another method of breach of the corporation tax ring fence FA87/s46 (now ICTA88/s497(3) and ICTA88/s497(4)) extended the restrictions in ICTA88/s497(2) to redeemable preference shares where:

  1. the dividend is paid on or after 17 March 1987 and
  2. at the time the shares are issued, or at the time the dividend is paid, the company paying the dividend is under the control of a UK resident company.

"Control" has the meaning in ICTA88/s416.

The ACT is available for set-off only against the CT on the non-ring fence profits of the company paying the dividend

An exception to the above rule, which applies only to ACT on redeemable preference shares, is to be found in subsection 4 and covers the situation where the proceeds of the issue of the shares are used to meet ring fence expenditure incurred by the issuing company or appropriated for such future expenditure. Where only part of the share issue is used for ring fence expenditure an appropriate apportionment is made. In this context, ring fence activities exclude the acquisition of oil rights from a connected person. Thus, in general terms, to the extent that the capital raised is (to be) used for appropriate ring fence purposes, the ACT can be set against tax on ring fence profits.

Redeemable preference shares, for this purpose, are particularly defined in ICTA88/s497(6) and ICTA88/s497(7).