Corporation Tax Act 2009 section 753

Treatment of non-trading losses

Section 753 explains how a company can obtain relief for a non-trading loss on intangible fixed assets, including setting the loss against total profits, carrying it forward, or surrendering it as group relief.

• A company may claim to set off all or part of a non-trading loss on intangible fixed assets against its total profits for the same accounting period, with the claim made within two years of the end of that period (or longer if HMRC allows).
• Any part of the loss not set off against total profits or surrendered as group relief is automatically carried forward to the next accounting period and treated as a non-trading loss on intangible fixed assets of that later period.
• The carry-forward rule does not apply if the company ceased to be a company with investment business during the period in which the loss arose or was being carried.
• Where a loss has already been carried forward from an earlier period, any group relief surrender of that carried-forward amount is dealt with under the group relief for carried-forward losses rules in Part 5A of the Corporation Tax Act 2010, rather than the standard group relief rules.