PART V

Profits from Trading within Shannon Airport

69. —In this Part—

“the airport” has the same meaning as in the Customs-free Airport Act, 1947 ;

“company” means any company carrying on a trade;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Finance.

70. —(1) In this section “qualified company” means a company the whole or part of the trade of which is carried on within the airport.

(2) Subject to subsections (5) and (6), the Minister may give a certificate certifying that such trading operations of a qualified company as are specified in the certificate are, with effect as from their commencement, exempted trading operations for the purposes of this Part, and any certificate so given shall, unless it is revoked under subsection (4), remain in force until the 5th day of April, 1990:

Provided that where the Minister has given a certificate under section 3 (2) of the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1958 , or under the said section 3 (2) and section 374 (2) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 (exempted trading operations), such certificate shall, until it is revoked, have effect as if it were a certificate given under this section.

(3) A certificate under subsection (2) may be given either without conditions or subject to such conditions as the Minister considers proper and specifies therein.

(4) Where, in the case of a company in relation to which a certificate under subsection (2) has been given—

(a) the trade of the company ceases or becomes carried on wholly outside the airport, or

(b) the Minister is satisfied that the company has failed to comply with any condition subject to which the certificate was given,

the Minister may, by notice in writing served by registered post on the company, revoke the certificate.

(5) The Minister shall not certify, under subsection (2), that a trading operation is an exempted trading operation unless it falls within one or more of the following classes of trading operations—

(a) the sale of goods exported, or to be exported, out of the State by the qualified company (whether acting as principal or agent), being goods which have been produced, manufactured or processed within the airport by the qualified company,

(b) the sale of goods exported, or to be exported, out of the State by the qualified company, being goods which have been imported into the State and which have been packaged or handled within the airport by the qualified company,

(c) the repair or maintenance, within the airport, of aircraft,

(d) the rendering, within the airport or outside the State, of services entailing the use of aircraft or air transport,

(e) other trading operations in regard to which the Minister is of opinion, after consultation with the Minister for Transport and Power, that they contribute to the use or development of the airport,

(f) trading operations which are ancillary to any of those described in the foregoing paragraphs of this subsection.

(6) The Minister shall not certify, under subsection (2), that any of the following trading operations is an exempted trading operation—

(a) the sale of goods brought, or to be brought, from the airport into any other part of the State otherwise than in the course of being exported out of the State,

(b) the rendering, to persons resident in the State outside the airport, of services,

(c) the production or manufacture of goods outside the airport,

(d) the operation of an air transport service other than an air transport service which—

(i) is operated between the airport and a place outside the State, and

(ii) is not so operated under an international bilateral agreement to which the Government is a party,

(e) the rendering within the State of—

(i) services to embarking or disembarking aircraft passengers, including hotel, catering, money changing or transport (other than air transport) services, or

(ii) services in connection with the landing, departure, loading or unloading of aircraft,

(f) the sale of goods by retail,

(g) the sale of consumable goods for the fuelling of aircraft or for shipment as aircraft stores.

71. —(1) Except as otherwise provided, income arising from, or losses sustained in, exempted trading operations shall not be taken into account for any purpose of this Act in relation to the company by which such operations are carried on.

(2) Where the trade carried on by a company consists partly of exempted trading operations and partly of other trading operations, the amount of the income arising from, or of the loss sustained in, such other trading operations shall, for any purpose of this Act, be computed as it would have been computed for that purpose if the company were carrying on two distinct trades consisting respectively of the exempted trading operations and of the other trading operations.

72. —(1) Where, in the course of exempted trading operations, the company carrying on the operations (hereafter in this subsection referred to as the buyer) buys goods from another person (hereafter in this subsection referred to as the seller) and—

(a) the seller has control over the buyer or, the seller being a body corporate or partnership, the buyer has control over the seller or some other person has control over both the seller and the buyer, and

(b) the goods are sold at a price less than the price which they might have been expected to fetch if the parties to the transaction had been independent parties dealing at arm's length, then, a computation of the income or losses of the seller, for any purpose of the Tax Acts, shall be made as if the goods had been sold for the price which they would have fetched if the transaction had been a transaction between independent persons dealing as aforesaid.

(2) In this section “control” has the meaning assigned to it by section 158.

73. —Where the Minister has given a certificate under section 70 (2) or under the sections mentioned in the proviso thereto—

(a) the provisions of the Tax Acts relating to the delivery of statements or returns of profits shall continue to have effect in relation to the company concerned as if the certificate had not been given, and

(b) the Revenue Commissioners may by notice in writing require the company concerned to furnish them, within such time as they may direct, with such accounts and other particulars as the Revenue Commissioners think necessary for the purposes of this Part.

74. —Notwithstanding anything in Part IV (Profits from Export of Certain Goods) no amount receivable from the sale of goods exported out of the State in the course of exempted trading operations shall be taken into account for any purpose of that Part.

75. —Where the trade carried on by a company consists partly of exempted trading operations and partly of other trading operations, the amount of any capital allowances to which, but for this section, the company would have been entitled shall be reduced by such amount, if any, as the Appeal Commissioners consider just having regard to section 71.

76. —(1) Where a distribution for an accounting period is made by a body corporate in part out of income from exempted trading operations and in part out of other profits, the distribution shall be treated as if it consisted of two distributions respectively made out of income from exempted trading operations and out of other profits.

(2) (a) So much of any distribution as has been made out of income from exempted trading operations—

(i) shall not, subject to section 54 of the Finance Act, 1974 (charge to tax in respect of certain dividends received by directors and employees), be regarded as income for any purpose of the Income Tax Acts; and

(ii) shall, where the recipient of such distribution is a body corporate, be deemed for the purposes of this Part to be income from exempted trading operations.

(b) The recipient of any distribution, including part of a distribution treated under subsection (1) as a distribution, made out of income from exempted trading operations shall not be entitled to a tax credit in respect of that distribution.

(3) (a) Where a body corporate makes a distribution, including part of a distribution treated under subsection (1) as a distribution, in respect of any right or obligation to which section 178 (dividends at gross rate or of gross amount) relates and the distribution is made out of income from exempted trading operations, the body corporate shall make a supplementary distribution of an amount equal to the amount of the tax credit which would have applied in respect of the distribution if subsection (2) (b) had not been enacted.

(b) Subsection (2) shall apply to a supplementary distribution under this subsection as if that supplementary distribution were a distribution made wholly out of income from exempted trading operations.

(4) In relation to any distribution (not being a supplementary distribution under this section), including part of a distribution treated under subsection (1) as a distribution, made by a body corporate out of income from exempted trading operations, section 5 (dividend warrants) and section 83 (5) (Schedule F) shall apply to the body corporate so that the statements provided for by those sections shall show, as respects each such distribution, in addition to the particulars required to be given apart from this section, that the distribution is made out of income from exempted trading operations.

(5) In relation to any supplementary distribution under subsection (3), section 5 shall apply to the body corporate so that the statement required by that section shall show, in addition to the particulars required to be given apart from this section, the separate amount of such supplementary distribution.

(6) Where a body corporate makes a distribution for an accounting period, the distribution shall be regarded for the purposes of this section as having been made out of the distributable income (as defined in section 64 (4)) of that period to the extent of that income and in relation to the excess of the distribution over that income out of the most recently accumulated income.

(7) Section 64 (5) (6) (distributions: tax credit and export sales relief) shall apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for purposes of that section.

(8) In this section “other profits” includes a dividend or other distribution of a body corporate which is resident in the State but does not include a distribution to which subsection (2) (a) (ii) applies.

77. —Where charges on income, which are payable out of the income of a trade consisting partly of exempted trading operations and partly of other trading operations, are paid in an accounting period by a company there shall be treated as paid out of profits brought into charge to corporation tax only the portion of the charges so payable which bears to the total amount thereof the same proportion as the amount of the income of the trade actually charged to tax bears to the amount of such income which would have been charged to tax if this Part had not been enacted.