Finance Act 2016

UK sub-groups: duty to publish a sub-group tax strategy

19 (1) This paragraph applies to a UK sub-group of a foreign group if in any financial year (“the current financial year”) the foreign group is a qualifying group.

(2) The head of the sub-group must ensure that a sub-group tax strategy for the sub-group, giving the information required by paragraph 20, is prepared and published in accordance with this paragraph.

(3) The sub-group tax strategy—

(a) must be published before the end of the current financial year, and

(b) if the group of which the sub-group is part was a qualifying group in the previous financial year, must not be published more than 15 months after the day on which its sub-group tax strategy for that year was published;

(4) The sub-group tax strategy—

(a) must be published on the internet by any of the UK companies that are members of the foreign group so as to be accessible to the public free of charge (whether or not it is also published in any other way), and

(b) may be published as a separate document or as a self-contained part of a wider document.

(5) The head of the sub-group must ensure that the sub-group tax strategy published on the internet remains accessible to the public free of charge—

(a) if a sub-group tax strategy for the sub-group’s next financial year is required by this paragraph to be published, until that tax strategy is published, or

(b) if paragraph (a) does not apply, for at least one year.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph—

(a) a sub-group tax strategy is published when it is first published on the internet as mentioned in sub-paragraph (4)(a),

(b) the identity of the sub-group is not affected by any change in its membership in the current financial year resulting from a relevant body becoming or ceasing to be a 51% subsidiary of a member of the sub-group, and

(c) if the sub-group becomes a UK sub-group of another foreign group during the current financial year, for the rest of that year it is to be treated as if it were still a UK sub-group of the original foreign group (but only a UK company within the sub-group may publish a sub-group tax strategy for the sub-group after that change).

(7) In this paragraph “financial year”, in relation to a UK sub-group, means a financial year of the head of the group of which it is a sub-group.