Income Tax Act 2007 section 283

Time as from which VCT approval has effect

Section 283 sets out the rules governing when a Venture Capital Trust (VCT) approval takes effect, including the ability for HMRC to back-date or forward-date the approval.

• A VCT approval takes effect from the specific time stated in the approval itself, which is not necessarily the date it is formally granted.
• If the approval is back-dated to a time before it was formally given, it cannot be set any earlier than the date the application was originally submitted.
• HMRC have discretion to stipulate that the approval takes effect from the date of application or any later date they choose.
• This means an approval can be either back-dated to the application date or forward-dated to a future point, giving HMRC flexibility in setting the effective date.