Readers may recall that when the old Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) regime was abolished in 1999, this necessitated regulations to ensure that any unrelieved surplus ACT balances carried forward by companies could still be accessed via the ‘shadow ACT’ rules. Regulations have now been laid before Parliament to amend these rules.
The former ‘shadow ACT’ rules involved a notional calculation of ACT paid on distributions made after 5 April 1999.
The Government says that these rules have served their purpose. However, in recognition that some companies still have significant balances of unrelieved surplus ACT, the current regulations, which cancel all remaining shadow ACT balances, also allow companies to speed up utilisation of their remaining unrelieved surplus ACT balances.