CTM60610 | Close companies: extended meaning of distribution: groups
From HM Revenue & Customs · Company Taxation Manual
CTA2010/S1066 (formerly ICTA88/S418 (5) & (6))
Section 1066 (1) provides exclusion for transfers of assets between companies in a group relationship.
Thus where the participator (or associate of a participator) is a company resident in the UK, the expense in CTM60520 is not to be treated as a distribution if:
the benefit arises on or in connection with the transfer of assets or liabilities by the company to the participator etc, or by the participator to the company, and
the company providing the benefit etc is a 51% subsidiary of the participator receiving the benefit, or vice-versa, or both provider and recipient are 51% subsidiaries of a third UK resident company.
For these purposes a company is a 51% subsidiary of another if the other company owns more than half of its ordinary share capital, either directly or indirectly. However a company is not to be treated for these purposes as owning share capital, either directly or indirectly:
in a company not resident in the UK, or
where the direct owner is a company for which a profit on the sale of the share capital would be a trading receipt.