Section 279 | Foreign assets: delayed remittances.

(1)Subsection (2) below applies where—

(a)chargeable gains accrue from the disposal of assets situated outside the United Kingdom, and

(b)the person charged or chargeable makes a claim, and^F1

(c)the conditions set out in subsection (3) below are, so far as applicable, satisfied as respects those gains (“the qualifying gains”);^F1

and subsection (2)(b) also applies where a claim has been made under section 13 of the 1979 Act.

(2)For the purposes of capital gains tax—

(a)the amount of the qualifying gains shall be deducted ... from the amounts on which the claimant is assessed to capital gains tax for the year in which the qualifying gains accrued to the claimant, but^F2

(b)the amount so deducted shall be assessed to capital gains tax on the claimant (or his personal representatives) as if it were an amount of chargeable gains accruing in the year of assessment in which the conditions set out in subsection (3) below cease to be satisfied.

(3)The conditions are—

(a)that the claimant was unable to transfer the qualifying gains to the United Kingdom, and

(b)that that inability was due to the laws of the territory where the assets were situated at the time of the disposal, or to the executive action of its government, or to the impossibility of obtaining foreign currency in that territory, and

(c)that the inability was not due to any want of reasonable endeavours on the part of the claimant.

(4)Where under an agreement entered into under arrangements made by the Secretary of State in pursuance of section 1 of the Overseas Investment and Export Guarantees Act 1972 or section 11 of the Export Guarantees and Overseas Investment Act 1978 any payment is made by the Exports Credits Guarantee Department in respect of any gains which cannot be transferred to the United Kingdom, then, to the extent of the payment, the gains shall be treated as gains with respect to which the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) above are not satisfied (and accordingly cannot cease to be satisfied).

(5)No claim under this section in respect of a chargeable gain shall be made—^F3

(a)in the case of a claim for the purposes of capital gains tax, more than 4 years after the end of the year of assessment in which the gain accrues; or^F3F4

(b)in the case of a claim for the purposes of corporation tax, more than 4 years after the end of the accounting period in which the gain accrues.^F3F5

(6)The personal representatives of a deceased person may make any claim which he might have made under this section if he had not died.

(7)Where—

(a)a claim under this section is made (or has been made under section 13 of the 1979 Act) by a man in respect of chargeable gains accruing to his wife before 6th April 1990, and

(b)by virtue of this section the amount of the gains falls to be assessed to capital gains tax as if it were an amount of gains accruing in the year 1992-93 or a subsequent year of assessment,

it shall be assessed not on the claimant (or his personal representatives) but on the person to whom the gains accrued (or her personal representatives).

(8)In relation to disposals before 19th March 1991 subsection (3)(b) above shall have effect with the substitution of the words “income arose" for the words “ assets were situated at the time of the disposal ”.