Section 551 | “Qualifying disposals” for purposes of section 550

(1)For the purposes of section 550 (meaning of “employee benefit trust”) a “qualifying disposal” is a disposal of property consisting of—

(a)any of the ordinary share capital of the company, or

(b)money paid outright,

where any of conditions 1, 2 and 3 is met.

(2)Condition 1 is that the property has been applied for the benefit of—

(a)individual employees or former employees of the company,

(b)spouses or civil partners , former spouses or civil partners , widows or widowers or surviving civil partners of employees or former employees of the company,^F1F2

(c)dependants of persons within paragraph (a), or

(d)relatives, or spouses or civil partners of relatives, of persons within paragraph (a) or (b).^F3

(3)In subsection (2) each reference to the company includes a reference to a company controlled by the company.

(4)Condition 2 is that the property has been applied for charitable purposes.

(5)Condition 3 is that the property has been transferred to—

(a)the trustees of another employee benefit trust,

(b)the trustees of a qualifying employee share ownership trust (within the meaning of Schedule 5 to FA 1989), or

(c)the trustees of a profit sharing scheme approved under Schedule 9 to ICTA (approved share option schemes and profit sharing schemes).

(6)In this section “relative” means—

(a)parent, child or remoter relation in the direct line, or

(b)brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece.