Corporation Tax Act 2009 section 1179BA

Duration of separate trade

Section 1179BA establishes when the separate production trade begins and confirms that once a company has elected into the creative industry tax relief regime, the separate trade treatment continues even if the production or company later loses its qualifying status.

• The start date of the separate production trade is determined by specific rules depending on whether the production is a film/television programme or a video game.
• If the separate trade is treated as having started before the accounting period in which the election was made, earlier company tax returns must be amended to reflect this.
• Once a company has elected to treat a qualifying production as a separate trade, that treatment continues permanently — even if the production stops being a qualifying production or the company stops being the qualifying company for it.
• References to "qualifying production" and "qualifying company" throughout the chapter include productions or companies that formerly held that status but no longer do.