Income Tax Act 2007 section 275

Alternative requirements for the giving of approval

Section 275 allows HMRC to approve a company as a Venture Capital Trust even where the company does not yet meet all the required conditions, provided HMRC is satisfied those conditions will be met within specified timeframes.

• Where a company fails to meet one or more of the VCT approval conditions for its most recent complete accounting period, HMRC may still grant approval on a forward-looking basis.
• HMRC must be satisfied that the unmet conditions will be met within a specified future accounting period and will continue to be met thereafter.
• For the listing condition, nature of income condition, income retention condition, and the 15% holding limit condition, the deadline is the current or next accounting period at the time of application.
• For the 80% qualifying holdings condition and the 70% eligible shares condition, the deadline is an accounting period beginning no more than three years after the approval is given or takes effect, whichever is earlier.