The Ports Act 1991 (Levy on Disposals of Land, etc.) Order 1992

Leases at rents — Levy payable by instalments

23.—(1) Subject to article 24, the levy payable on the grant of a lease under which a rent is payable may, in so far as it exceeds the amount of levy which would but for article 18 have been payable on the grant, be paid by the chargeable company by up to ten equal instalments on each of the company’s annual reporting dates or of the anniversaries of those dates, beginning with the annual reporting date relating to the disposal period in which the lease is granted and ending with the earlier of—

(a) the ninth anniversary of that date; or

(b) the annual reporting date or anniversary next following the end of the financial year in which the term of the lease expires or (in a case provided for by paragraph (2) of article 20) of the financial year in which it has for the purposes of that paragraph been assumed that the term of the lease will expire:

Provided that if an instalment would, apart from this proviso, exceed the applicable percentage of the aggregate amount payable under the lease by way of rent in the disposal period immediately preceding the annual reporting date on which the instalment ispayable—

(a) the amount of the instalment shall be reduced to an amount equal to the applicable percentage of that aggregate amount; and

(b) the amount by which the instalment is so reduced shall be payable on the date on which the final instalment (whether or not so reduced) is payable.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) above, the “applicable percentage”, in relation to an instalment, is the percentage figure equal to 100 minus R, where “R” is the rate of corporation tax during the disposal period immediately preceding the annual reporting date on which the instalment is payable or, if there was more than one such rate during that period, the time-weighted average of such rates during that period.

(3) Where an instalment is payable in accordance with paragraph (1) above on a date falling after the annual reporting date relating to the last disposal period of a chargeable company, the company shall furnish to the appropriate Minister on that date a statement which gives in respect of that instalment the information which is required by paragraph 14 of Schedule 3 to this Order to be given in relation to an instalment which is payable on an annual reporting date.