The Taxes (Interest Rate) (Amendment) Regulations 2010

Statutory Instruments

2010 No. 415

Income Tax

The Taxes (Interest Rate) (Amendment) Regulations 2010

Made

23rd February 2010

Laid before House of Commons

24th February 2010

Coming into force

6th April 2010

The Treasury make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 178(1) and (2)(s) of the Finance Act 1989(1) and section 181(2) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003(2).

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Taxes (Interest Rate) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 and shall come into force on 6th April 2010.

Amendment of the Taxes (Interest Rate) Regulations 1989

2.  In regulation 5 of the Taxes (Interest Rate) Regulations 1989(3) in paragraph (1) for “on and after 1st March 2009, be 4.75 per cent per annum” substitute “on and after 6th April 2010, be 4.00 per cent per annum”.

Steve McCabe

Dave Watts

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

23rd February 2010

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend regulation 5 of the Taxes (Interest Rate) Regulations 1989.

That regulation sets the applicable rate for the purposes of Chapter 7 of Part 3 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (“ITEPA 2003”). Chapter 7 sets out the circumstances in which employment related loans give rise to a taxable benefit on the amount by which the interest actually paid is less than the amount that would have been due if calculated at “the official rate of interest”. Section 181 of ITEPA 2003 defines the official rate of interest as, in effect, the rate specified in regulation 5.

The amendment made by these Regulations specifies, with effect from 6th April 2010, a new generally applicable rate of interest of 4.00 per cent per annum, in substitution for the rate of 4.75 per cent per annum. The rates of interest specified in relation to Japan and Switzerland in paragraph (2) of regulation 5 remain the same.

A full and final Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as a negligible impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

(1)

1989 c.26; paragraph (s) of subsection (2) of section 178 was inserted by paragraph 162(d) of Schedule 6 to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (c.1).

(2)

2003 c.1.

(3)

S.I. 1989/1297; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1994/1307, 1567, 2007/684 and 2009/199.