Finance Act, 1998

Amendment of section 479 (relief for new shares purchased on issue by employees) of Principal Act.

11.—(1) Section 479 of the Principal Act is hereby amended—

(a) in subsection (1)(a), by the substitution, in paragraph (ii) of the definition of “eligible shares”, of “the period of 3 years” for “the period of 5 years”,

(b) in subsection (3)—

(i) by the substitution of “the period of 3 years” for “the period of 5 years”, and

(ii) by the deletion of the words from “; but” to the end of the subsection,

and

(c) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (5)—

“(5) In relation to shares in respect of which relief has been given under subsection (2) and not withdrawn, any question—

(a) as to which (if any) such shares issued to an eligible employee at different times a disposal relates, or

(b) as to whether a disposal relates to such shares or to other shares,

shall for the purposes of this section be determined as it would be determined for the purposes of section 498 but without regard to the reference in subsection (4) (as amended by the Finance Act, 1998) of that section to subsection (3) of this section.”,

and the said paragraph (ii) and the said subsection (3), as so amended, are set out in the Table to this section.

(2) This section shall come into operation on the 12th day of February, 1998.

TABLE

(ii) throughout the period of 3 years beginning with the date on which they are issued, carry no present or future preferential right to dividends or to the company's assets on its winding up and no present or future preferential right to be redeemed,

(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply as respects any amount subscribed for eligible shares if within the period of 3 years from the date of their acquisition—

(a) those shares are disposed of, or

(b) the eligible employee who made the subscription receives in respect of those shares any money or money's worth which does not constitute income in his or her hands for the purpose of income tax,

and there shall be made all such assessments, additional assessments or adjustments of assessments as are necessary to withdraw any relief from income tax already given under subsection (2) in respect of the amount subscribed.