Appendix
S.I. 2009/214: memorandum from HM Revenue &
Customs
Inheritance Tax (Delivery of Accounts) (Excepted
Estates) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2009/214)
1. The Select Committee has requested a memorandum
to be submitted on the following point-
In regulation 5A of the principal Regulations,
inserted by regulation 4, what is the intended meaning of the
expression "the alternatively secured pension fund arrangements"
used in paragraph (4)(d), and how is that intention made clear?
2. Regulation 4 of the instrument inserts new
regulation 5A into the principal Regulations. New regulation 5A(4)(d)
includes the expression "the alternatively secured pension
fund provisions". This expression is defined in regulation
4(9) of the principal Regulations and it was the Department's
intention that the definition in regulation 4(9) should apply
to the expression in regulation 5A. However regulation 4(9) commences
"In this regulation "the alternatively secured pension
fund provisions" means….". The effect of this is
that the expression is defined for the purposes of regulation
4(9) only.
3. The Department accepts that the definition
in regulation 4(9) should have been deleted and inserted in the
general definitions clause in regulation 2, since it would then
have applied throughout the principal Regulations. The Department
apologises for this error and proposes to correct this as soon
as possible and in any event within the next six months.
4. New regulation 5A(4)(d) is expected to apply
only to a small number of cases. The Chancellor announced in his
budget proposals yesterday that it is intended that the alternatively
secured pension fund provisions will be repealed under Finance
Act 2011 with effect from 6 April 2011. Draft legislation to deal
with this was published in December 2010.
5. This provision will therefore only be of potential
application to deaths between 6 April 2010 and 5 April 2011. The
Department considers that if the matter were to come before a
court before the regulations are amended, the court would seek
to give the provision effect by applying the meaning given in
regulation 4(9). However, it appreciates that nonetheless the
mistake should be corrected.
HM Revenue & Customs
24 March 2011
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