Corporation tax is the single tax a company pays on all its profits, both income and capital gains. Wherever you advise a company — on its trading results, a sale of assets, borrowing, paying dividends, or moving assets around a group — the tax consequences follow close behind, so a solicitor needs to know how the charge is built up and when it falls due.
This lesson walks you through the whole picture, one piece at a time:
- Scope, Residence and Accounting Periods — who pays corporation tax, what counts as taxable profits, and the time periods used to charge it.
- Trading Income, Deductions and Capital Allowances — how to adjust accounting profit, what you can and can't deduct, and how relief is given for capital spending.
- Chargeable Gains — how companies are taxed on gains, indexation, capital losses, and the substantial shareholding exemption.
- Loan Relationships, Dividends and Losses — the debt/equity divide, how dividends are treated, and the options for relieving trading losses.
- Groups — surrendering losses between group companies and moving assets tax-neutrally within a group.
- Rates, Payment and Compliance — the rates, marginal relief, associated companies, payment dates and filing.
- Close Companies and the Section 455 Charge — what makes a company close and the charge on loans to participators.