Corporation Tax Act 2009 section Schedule 2 para 10

Changes in the law

Section Schedule 2 paragraph 10 provides an election mechanism to protect taxpayers from unintended changes in tax consequences arising from the rewrite of existing law into the Corporation Tax Act 2009.

• Where something happened before the Act took effect and the rewrite inadvertently changed the tax outcome for a straddling period, the taxpayer can elect to be taxed as if the law had not changed
• The relevant dates are 1 April 2009 for corporation tax and 6 April 2009 for income tax, with the provision covering accounting periods or periods of account that straddle those dates
• Where the same thing or event involves more than one person, the election only works if all affected persons make corresponding elections
• Elections must be made within two years of the end of the accounting period for corporation tax, or by the first anniversary of the normal self-assessment filing date for income tax