Capital Allowances Act 2001 section 51

Disclosure of information between UK tax authorities

Section 51 permits the sharing of information between HMRC and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland, overriding normal secrecy obligations, for the purpose of administering enhanced capital allowances for small or medium-sized enterprises incurring expenditure for Northern Ireland purposes.

• Normal statutory secrecy rules do not prevent HMRC and the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture and Rural Development from sharing information with each other for the specified purpose.
• The permitted purpose is to assist HMRC in administering the enhanced allowances under section 40 for Northern Ireland qualifying expenditure by SMEs, or to assist the Department in carrying out its own functions under the same chapter of the Act.
• Information obtained through such authorised disclosure is restricted in how it may be further shared — it can only be passed to HMRC, the Department, or an authorised officer of the Department.
• Beyond those recipients, the information may only be disclosed for the purposes of proceedings connected with the capital allowance functions of HMRC or the Department.