Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 section 288

Interpretation

Section 288 provides a comprehensive glossary of definitions and interpretive rules used throughout the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, ensuring consistent meaning of key terms across the legislation.

• The section defines over 50 key terms used in the Act, including fundamental concepts such as "allowable loss", "chargeable period", "company", "close company", "control", "shares", "trade", "wasting asset" and "year of assessment", as well as abbreviations for other legislation such as "the Taxes Act", "CTA 2009", "ITA 2007" and "ITEPA 2003".
• It establishes important interpretive rules — for example, that employment-related securities options must be treated as options for capital gains purposes, that a tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April, that "shares" includes stock, that "land" includes buildings, and that shares in a letter of allotment are treated as issued unless the rights remain provisional and unaccepted.
• The section identifies a specific list of statutory provisions that constitute the "no gain/no loss provisions" — these are the rules under which assets can be transferred between certain parties (such as spouses, group companies, or on certain statutory reorganisations) without triggering a chargeable gain or allowable loss at the time of transfer.
• It also provides supplementary definitions including "Treaty non-resident" (a person treated as resident outside the UK under a double tax treaty), "recognised futures exchange", "consumer prices index", "retail prices index", "split year" terminology, and a cross-reference table directing users to where other defined terms (such as "market value", "chargeable gain", "settled property", "qualifying corporate bond" and "connected persons") can be found elsewhere in the Act.