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16 1981

FINANCE ACT, 1981

Chapter IV

Corporation tax

Time for payment of corporation tax.

15. —(1) Section 6 (4) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , is hereby amended as respects accounting periods ending on or after the 6th day of April, 1980—

(a) in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a), by the substitution of “twelve” for “fifteen”, and

(b) in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b), by the substitution of “such an interval from the end of that accounting period as is three months less than the interval” for “the like interval from the end of such accounting period as there was”,

and the said subparagraphs, as so amended, are set out in the Table to this subsection.

TABLE

(ii) the second instalment within twelve months from the end of the accounting period or, if it is later, within two months from the making of the assessment.

(ii) in respect of any subsequent accounting period, within such an interval from the end of that accounting period as is three months less than the interval between the end of the first accounting period for which the company was within the charge to corporation tax and the date on or before which the second instalment of corporation tax for that first accounting period would have become payable if the assessment for that accounting period had been made on the day immediately following the end of that accounting period:

(2) If subsection (1) would, but for this subsection, have effect so as to require that the second instalment of corporation tax assessed for an accounting period which, apart from subsection (1), would fall to be paid within a period ending on or after the date of the passing of this Act, should fall to be paid within a period ending on a date earlier than the date of such passing, that second instalment shall, notwithstanding subsection (1), fall to be paid within a period ending on the date of such passing.

(3) Subsection (1) shall not have effect in relation to the second instalment of corporation tax assessed for an accounting period which, apart from that subsection, would fall to be paid within a period ending before the date of the passing of this Act.

Amendment of section 143 (return of profits) of Corporation Tax Act, 1976.

16. Section 143 of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , is hereby amended by the substitution of the following subsections for subsections (1) and (2):

“(1) A company may be required by a notice served on it by an inspector or other officer of the Revenue Commissioners to deliver to the officer within the time limited by the notice a return of—

(a) the profits of the company computed in accordance with this Act—

(i) specifying the income taken into account in computing those profits, with the amount from each source,

(ii) giving particulars of all disposals giving rise to chargeable gains or allowable losses under the provisions of the Capital Gains Tax Acts and this Act and particulars of those chargeable gains or allowable losses, and

(iii) giving particulars of all charges on income to be deducted against those profits for the purpose of the assessment to corporation tax,

and

(b) the distributions received by the company from companies resident in the State and the tax credits to which the company is entitled in respect of those distributions.

(2) A notice under this section may require a return of profits arising in any period during which the company was within the charge to corporation tax together with particulars of distributions received in that period from companies resident in the State and of tax credits to which the company is entitled in respect of those distributions.”.

Amendment of Chapter VI (manufacturing companies) of Part I of Finance Act, 1980.

17. —As respects any relevant accounting period within the meaning of section 38 of that Act, Chapter VI of Part I of the Finance Act, 1980 , is hereby amended—

(a) by the insertion in section 39 after subsection (1) of the following subsections:

“(1A) The definition of ‘goods’ contained in subsection (1) shall include—

(a) fish produced within the State on a fish farm, and

(b) cultivated mushrooms cultivated within the State,

in the course of a trade by the company which, in relation to the relevant accounting period, is the company claiming relief under this Chapter in relation to the trade and references in this Chapter to ‘manufactured’ shall be construed—

(i) in relation to fish, as including references to produced, and

(ii) in relation to mushrooms, as including references to cultivated,

and words in this Chapter cognate to ‘manufactured’ shall be construed accordingly.

(1B) The following provisions shall apply, for the purpose of relief under this Chapter, in relation to a company that carries on a trade which consists of or includes the repairing of ships—

(a) repairs carried out within the State to a ship shall be regarded as the manufacture within the State of goods, and

(b) any amount receivable in payment for such repairs so carried out shall be regarded as an amount receivable from the sale of goods.

(1C) (a) In this subsection ‘engineering services’ means design and planning services the work on the rendering of which is carried out in the State in connection with chemical, civil, electrical or mechanical engineering works executed outside the territories of the Member States of the European Communities.

(b) Where a company carries on a trade which consists of or includes the rendering of engineering services, the following provisions shall apply for the purpose of relief under this Chapter—

(i) the rendering within the State of such services shall be regarded as the manufacture within the State of goods, and

(ii) any amount receivable in payment for such services so rendered shall be regarded as an amount receivable from the sale of goods.

(1D) The inspector may by notice in writing require a company claiming relief from tax by virtue of subsection (1B) or (1C), as the case may be, to furnish him with such information or particulars as may be necessary for the purpose of giving effect to that subsection, and section 41(2) shall have effect as if the matters of which proof is required thereby included the information or particulars specified in a notice under this subsection.”,

and

(b) by the insertion after section 39 of the following section:

“Relief in relation to income from certain trading operations carried on in Shannon Airport.

39A.—(1) In this section—

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

company’ means any company carrying on a trade;

the EEC Treaty’ means the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, signed at Rome on the 25th day of March, 1957;

the Minister’ means the Minister for Finance;

qualified company’ means a company the whole or part of the trade of which is carried on within the airport;

relevant trading operations’ means trading operations specified in a certificate given by the Minister under subsection (2);

trading operation’ means any trading operation which, apart from this section, is not the manufacture of goods for the purpose of this Chapter but is carried on by a qualified company.

(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 from a date to be specified in the certificate, relevant trading operations for the purpose of this section, and any certificate so given shall, unless it is revoked under subsection (4), remain in force until the 31st day of December, 2000:

Provided that—

(a) any trading operations in respect of which the Minister has given a certificate under section 70 (2) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , (or a certificate which has effect as if it were a certificate given under that section) shall not be certified as relevant trading operations unless the Minister is satisfied that those operations arise from an initial investment; and

(b) in determining what constitutes an initial investment for the purposes of this proviso the Minister shall have regard to the principles for the time being applied by the Commission of the European Communities in accordance with the powers vested in it by Articles 92 to 94 of the EEC Treaty.

(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 with effect from such date as may be specified in the notice.

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

(a) the repair or maintenance of aircraft,

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

(c) trading operations which are ancillary to any of those operations described in the foregoing paragraphs or to any operation consisting, apart from this section, of the manufacture of goods.

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

(a) the rendering 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,

(b) the operation of a scheduled air transport service,

(c) selling by retail,

(d) the sale of consumable commodities for the fuelling of aircraft or for shipment as aircraft stores.

(7) In the case of a qualified company carrying on relevant trading operations, the following provisions shall apply for the purpose of relief under this Chapter—

(a) the relevant trading operations shall be regarded as the manufacture within the State of goods, and

(b) any amount receivable in payment for anything sold, or any services rendered, in the course of the relevant trading operations shall be regarded as an amount receivable from the sale of goods.

(8) (a) Where at the end of any relevant accounting period a qualified company has fifty or more full-time employees, the aggregate of all amounts of relevant relief under this Chapter to which the company is entitled for all relevant accounting periods shall not exceed an amount determined in accordance with the principles for the time being applied by the Commission of the European Communities under the powers vested in it by Articles 92 to 94 of the EEC Treaty, and there shall be made such additional assessments or adjustments of assessments as may be required in any case in order to give effect to this subsection.

(b) In this subsection—

full-time employees’ means, in relation to a qualified company, employees who are employed by the company on a full-time basis in relation to relevant trading operations and the duties of whose employment are such that they are required to devote substantially the whole of their time to the service of the company;

relevant relief under this Chapter’ means the relief under this Chapter to which a qualified company would not be entitled but for the provisions of subsection (7).

(9) (a) The Revenue Commissioners may make regulations for the purposes of giving effect to subsection (8) (a) and to provide for any ancillary or consequential matters.

(b) Every regulation made under paragraph (a) shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next twenty-one days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(10) The inspector may by notice in writing require a company claiming relief from tax by virtue of this section to furnish him with such information or particulars as may be necessary for the purpose of giving effect to this section, and section 41(2) shall have effect as if the matters of which proof is required thereby included the information or particulars specified in a notice under this section.”.