Section 312B | “Qualifying bonus payments” ^F1

(1)A payment made by an employer (“E”) to an employee or former employee is a qualifying bonus payment if—

(a)it does not consist of regular salary or wages,

(b)it is awarded under a scheme which meets the participation requirement and the equality requirement (see section 312C),

(c)E meets the trading requirement (see section 312D) throughout the qualifying period,

(d)E meets the indirect employee-ownership requirement (see section 312E) throughout the qualifying period,

(e)E meets the office-holder requirement (see section 312F) at the time the payment is made and on at least the requisite number of days in the qualifying period (whether or not those days are consecutive),

(f)E is not a service company (see section 312G),

(g)the payment is not excluded (see section 312H), and

(h)where it is a payment to a former employee, it is made in the period of 12 months beginning with the day the employment ceased.

(2)In this section “the qualifying period”, in relation to a payment, means the period of 12 months ending with the day on which the payment is made.

(3)But in a case where E meets the indirect employee-ownership requirement on the day on which the payment is made—

(a)if the controlling interest requirement was first met during that 12 month period, the qualifying period does not include any time before it was met, and

(b)if the all-employee benefit requirement was first met during that 12 month period, the qualifying period does not include any time before that requirement was met.

(4)In this section “the requisite number of days” means—

(a)if the qualifying period is 12 months, the number of days in that period reduced by 90, and

(b)if the qualifying period is a shorter period by virtue of subsection (3), the number of days in that period reduced by the corresponding fraction of 90 days.