Clearances and approvals provided for in the Taxes Acts

The Taxes Acts say that advance clearance or approval may be given to some transactions. These are listed below together with the addresses to which you should send applications.

Booklet Code of Practice 10 tells you what other information and advice is available to you from HMRC.

Summary table of statutory clearances and relevant contacts (PDF 79K)
This list has been updated following Sir David Varney’s review of links with business.

Where advance clearance is required under statutory provisions relating to any one or more of the following, the application should be sent to the Clearance & Counteraction Team, Anti-Avoidance Group.

  • Capital Gains (S138, 139(5), 140B and 140D TCGA)
  • Purchase of Own Shares by unquoted trading companies
  • Demergers
  • EIS shares (acquisition by new company)
  • Company Reorganisations involving Intangible Fixed Assets
  • Transactions in Securities (S707 ICTA 1988/S701 ITA 2007)

Other applications for advance clearance are dealt with as follows:

Clearance applications

Statutory approvals

Clearance applications

Inward Investment

Advice under Statement of Practice 02/2007

Applications for advance agreement on significant inward investment or corporate reconstructions in accordance with Statement of Practice 02/2007.

Send applications for Advance Agreement to advanceagreementsunit.CT&VAT@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Company migrations

Notices to be given under Section 130 Finance Act 1988:
Notification of company migration and approval of arrangements for payment of tax liabilities, Section 130 FA 1988 (see Statement of Practice 2/90)

Please send applications for clearance to:

Hazel Ford
CT & VAT (International CT)
100 Parliament St
London
SW1A 2BQ

Transactions in shares or debentures

Under Sections 765 & S765A ICTA 1988:
Applications for treasury consent under Section 765 ICTA 1988 to certain transactions in shares or debentures (see HMRC Corporation Tax Manual CT 3449) and notification as required by Section 765A ICTA 1988 of transactions falling within the European Capital Movements Directive (see Statement of Practice 2/92).

Please send application for consent or notification to:

Des Hanna/David Price/Ian Wright for s765 or Mark Bryan for s765A
CT & VAT (International CT)
100 Parliament St
London
SW1A 2BQ

Advance pricing agreements

Under Sections 85-87 FA 1999:
Application for an Advance Pricing Agreement relating to transfer pricing issues in accordance with Sections 85-87 FA 1999 (See Statement of Practice 3/99)

Send Application for agreement to:

Ian Wood
CT & VAT (International CT)
100 Parliament St
London
SW1A 2BQ

(For APAs involving oil taxation the contact continues to be, as stated in Statement of Practice SP3/99);

Alan Tume or Malcolm Phelps
Large Business Service Oil & Gas (APAs)
2nd Floor
22 Kingsway
London WC2B 6NR
Telephone - 020 7438 7626, fax - 020 7438 6910

Controlled foreign companies

Under Sections 747-756 and Schedules 24-26 ICTA 1988:
Clearances in relation to Controlled Foreign Companies

Send application for clearance to:

Mary Sharp/David Price/Des Hanna
CT & VAT (International CT)
100 Parliament St
London
SW1A 2BQ

Funding issues

Pre-transaction advice on funding issues under Tax Bulletins 17 and 37 :

Send application for advice to;

Miles Nelson
CT & VAT (International CT)
100 Parliament St
London
SW1A 2BQ

Transactions in land

Under S35 ICTA 1988: (for corporation tax purposes) and S300 ITTOIA 2005 (for income tax purposes):

Confirmation of the taxpayer's view of the tax consequences of assigning a lease granted at under value.

Under Section 776 ICTA 1988: (for corporation tax purposes) and S770 ITA (for income tax purposes):

Confirmation that Section 776 ICTA does not apply to gains made from transactions in land

Please send applications for clearance to the Inspector of Taxes who deals with your returns.

Transfers of long term business between life assurance companies

Under S444A ICTA 1988 and S211 TCGA 1992:

Please send all applications for clearance, including cases where the parties include non-UK resident companies or friendly societies to:

Richard Thomas
CT & VAT Product & Process (Insurance Group)
HM Revenue & Customs
3rd Floor (3C/10)
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2B

Corporate venturing schemes

Under Schedule 15 FA 2000
Confirmation that the rules of the scheme (other than those applying to the investing company) will be satisfied.

Small Company Enterprise Centre
Centre for Revenue Intelligence (CRI)
Ty Glas
Llanishen
Cardiff CF14 5ZG

Clearance & Counteraction Team, Anti-Avoidance Group

All clearance applications under the statutory provisions shown below are handled on an integrated basis meaning that only one single application is necessary.

The following arrangements apply:
Where clearance is required under any one or more of the following provisions:

then you should send a single letter to the Clearance & Counteraction Team, Anti-Avoidance Group at the London address given below. No extra copy is required as the same person will deal with each of the clearances asked for. A single response will be given covering all of these.

Please make clear at the top of your letter what clearances you are asking for.

This team does not handle applications for Stamp Duty clearance under Section 77(3) FA 1986. For queries relating specifically to S77 FA 1986 or any other stamp duty issues contact HMRC Stamp Taxes office.

Your application should be sent to:

Non market sensitive

Clearance & Counteraction Team, Anti-Avoidance Group
First Floor
22 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6NR

Market sensitive

Team Leader
Clearance & Counteraction Team, Anti-Avoidance Group
First Floor
22 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6NR

Email applications

Send to Reconstructions

Attachments to e-mails should be no larger than 2 MB. Please don't send self-extracting zip files as our software will block them.

  • The security of e-mails you send to us or we send to you over the internet cannot be guaranteed.
  • It is important that you have assessed the risks of using e-mail to send information or to receive it from us.
  • If you use email to send us information, you do so at your own risk.
  • Information about market/price sensitive matters or well known individuals should not be sent by email.
  • If you have any doubt about the authenticity of an email you receive which claims to come from the Clearance and Counteraction Team, please call us to check.
  • If you would like us to reply by email, please tell us so and confirm that you understand and accept the risks involved in using email. We will not always be able to reply by email.
  • If you email your application, please do not send us a hard copy.
  • Please do not use our former email address (reconstructions@gtnet.gov.uk) as this is now closed.

Fax applications

Send to 020 7438 4409

  • It is important that you have assessed the risks of using fax.
  • If you use fax to send us information, you do so at your own risk.
  • You should call the team leader on Tel 020 7438 6585 before you fax us market sensitive information.
  • If you would like us to reply by fax, please tell us so. We will not always be able to reply by fax.
  • If you fax your application, please do not send us a hard copy.

Please note the following:

  1. We acknowledge only those applications that we do not expect to deal with within a few days of receipt.
  2. If you are enquiring about the progress of an application or making general enquiries please contact us on Tel 0207 438 7474.
  3. We regard information that could affect the price of a stock market quoted company and information concerning the financial affairs of well known individuals as sensitive.

Statutory approvals

Employee Share Schemes

Under Schedules 2, 3 & 4, ITEPA 2003:

Share Incentive Plans, Savings-Related Share Option Schemes & Company Share Option Plans:

Please send applications for approval to:

HMRC Employee Shares & Securities Unit
Room G52
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ

(See also our Share Schemes pages)

Pensions

Sections 590 & 591 ICTA 1988:
Occupational pensions, personal pensions, public sector schemes, FSAVC schemes & ex-gratia relevant payments

Please send applications for approval to:

HM Revenue & Customs
Pension Schemes Office
Yorke House
PO Box 62
Castle Meadow Road
Nottingham NG2 1BG

(See also our Pensions Schemes Office pages)

Qualifying life assurance policies

Schedule 15 ICTA 1988:
Certification of qualifying life assurance policies

Please send applications for approval to:

Claire Ritchie
Revenue Policy, Business Tax (Insurance)
3rd Floor (3C/09)
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ