Chapter V

Corporation Tax

26. —(1) For the financial year 1982 and each subsequent financial year—

(a) sections 15 , 17 (1) (a) and 18 of the Finance Act, 1977 , shall not have effect, and

(b) corporation tax shall, accordingly, be charged under section 1 (1) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , at the rate of 50 per cent., under section 28 (1) of that Act at the rate of 40 per cent. and under section 79 (1) of that Act at the rate of 35 per cent.

(2) The Second Schedule shall have effect for the purpose of supplementing subsection (1).

27. —(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, 1981—

(a) in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a), by the substitution of “six” for “nine”,

(b) in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a), by the substitution of “nine” for “twelve” (inserted by the Finance Act, 1981 ),

(c) in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b), by the substitution of “six” for “three” (inserted by the Finance Act, 1981 ), and

(d) in the proviso to paragraph (b), by the substitution of “six” for “nine”,

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

TABLE

(i) the first instalment within six months from the end of the accounting period or, if it is later, within two months from the making of the assessment; and

(ii) the second instalment within nine 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 six 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:

Provided that in no case shall the second instalment of corporation tax assessed for an accounting period become payable before the expiration of six months from the end of the accounting period for which it is assessed or before the expiration of two months from the making of the assessment.

(2) If subsection (1) would, but for this subsection, have effect so as to require that the first or 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 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 first or 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.

(4) (a) Section 550 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , shall, in so far as it applies for the purposes of corporation tax, by virtue of section 145 (3) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , have effect as if in subsection (2) “one month” were substituted for “two months” (inserted by the Finance Act, 1971 ).

(b) Paragraph (a) shall not apply as respects interest on corporation tax charged by an assessment made before the date of the passing of this Act.

28. —(1) In this section—

“participating bank” means the Bank of Ireland or Allied Irish Banks Limited;

“qualifying farmer” means a farmer who has been accepted as eligible for inclusion in the specified scheme;

“relevant accounting period” means an accounting period or part of an accounting period falling within the period from the 1st day of April, 1982, to the 31st day of March, 1986;

“relief from interest”, in relation to a relevant accounting period of a participating bank, means the amount by which B exceeds A where—

A is the amount of interest paid by qualifying farmers to that bank during that period in respect of loans the rate of interest on which falls to be reduced under the specified scheme, and

B is the amount of interest which would have fallen to be paid by those farmers to that bank during the said period in respect of the said loans if that interest had not been reduced under the specified scheme;

“the specified scheme” means the scheme known as the Reduced Interest Scheme for Farmers in Severe Financial Difficulty introduced by the Minister for Agriculture on the 1st day of April, 1982, in association with certain banks and The Agricultural Credit Corporation Limited.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), where a participating bank claims and proves that relief from interest was allowed by it during a relevant accounting period, the corporation tax payable by that bank for the accounting period which coincides with or includes the relevant accounting period shall be reduced by an amount determined by the formula

where—

C is the amount of the relief from interest allowed by the participating bank during the relevant accounting period, and

D is the amount of corporation tax which, under sections 1 (1) and 6 (3) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , would be chargeable for the accounting period which coincides with or includes the relevant accounting period on an amount of profits equal to C.

(3) (a) A reduction, under subsection (2), of corporation tax pay able by a participating bank shall be made in respect only of relief from interest which has been certified by the Minister for Agriculture to be relief from interest allowed in accordance with the conditions and regulations of the specified scheme.

(b) If any relief from interest (hereafter in this paragraph referred to as “disallowed relief”) allowed by a participating bank has been certified by the Minister for Agriculture to be relief from interest allowed in accordance with the conditions and regulations of the specified scheme and is subsequently certified by the Minister for Agriculture to be relief from interest which did not fall to be allowed in accordance with those conditions and regulations, the participating bank shall not be entitled in respect of the disallowed relief to any reduction under subsection (2) of corporation tax payable by it and, if any such reduction has been made in respect of any such disallowed relief, there shall be made such additional assessments or adjustments of assessments as may be required to recover that reduction.