Companies Act, 1990

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Interests to be disregarded.

55.—(1) The following interests shall be disregarded for the purposes of section 54 and sections 56 to 58 —

(a) where property is held on trust and an interest in shares or debentures is comprised in that property, an interest in reversion or remainder or of a bare trustee and any discretionary interest;

(b) an interest of a person subsisting by virtue of—

(i) his holding units in—

(I) a registered unit trust scheme within the meaning of section 3 of the Unit Trusts Act, 1972 ;

(II) a unit trust to which section 31 of the Capital Gains Tax Act, 1975 , as amended by section 34 of the Finance Act, 1977 relates;

(III) an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities, within the meaning of the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations, 1989 ( S.I. No. 78 of 1989 );

(ii) a scheme made under section 46 of the Charities Act, 1961 ;

(c) an interest for the life of himself or another of a person under a settlement in the case of which the property comprised in the settlement consists of or includes shares or debentures, and the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) are satisfied;

(d) an interest in shares or debentures held by a member of a recognised stock exchange carrying on business as a stock broker which is held by way of security only for the purposes of a transaction entered into by the person or body concerned in the ordinary course of business of such person or body;

(e) such interests, or interests of such a class, as may be prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph by regulations made by the Minister.

(2) A person shall not by virtue of section 54 (4) (b) be taken to be interested in shares or debentures by reason only that he has been appointed a proxy to vote at a specified meeting of a company or of any class of its members and at any adjournment of that meeting, or has been appointed by a body corporate to act as its representative at any meeting of a company or of any class of its members.

(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) (c) are, in relation to a settlement—

(a) that it is irrevocable, and

(b) that the settlor (within the meaning of section 96 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 ) has no interest in any income arising under, or property comprised in, the settlement.