CG53000 | Substantial shareholdings exemption: introduction - background and main table of contents

FA02/S44, TCGA92/S192A, FA02/SCH8 & TCGA92/SCH7AC

As part of the Government’s programme of modernising company taxation Finance Act 2002 introduced an exemption regime for gains arising from disposals by companies of shares where certain conditions are met. This legislation was preceded by a series of Technical Notes and Consultation Documents, the last of which was issued at the time of the pre-budget report in November 2001. It announced that, subject to further consultation, an exemption regime would be introduced from 1 April 2002. Draft legislation for the exemption regime was published with that Technical Note.

The draft legislation was modified in the light of representations. As budget day was not until 17 April 2002, but the legislation would apply from 1 April 2002, a Press Release (PR6/02) was issued on 26 March 2002 announcing the start date of the legislation.

The legislation was further modified by Finance Act 2017 which introduced simplifications to the SSE regime for disposals on or after 1 April 2017. The exemption was also extended to companies owned by a class of investor known as the Qualifying Institutional Investor

The guidance is organised so that for each aspect there is an introductory paragraph giving a general overview of the topic followed by more detailed information. The introductory paragraphs are shown in the table below.