

HMRC internal manual

Business Leasing Manual

’Income-into-capital’ schemes and back loaded leases: Back loaded leases: normal rent

‘Normal rent’ from a lease is defined in CTA10/S896 as the sums which would be taxable as rent on the lessor under tax law apart from Part 21 of CTA 2010.

HMRC guidance on what counts as normal rent in the article on Schedule 12 (now Part 21 of CTA 2010) published in the April 1997 issue of Tax Bulletin. That was in the context of Condition C in CTA10/S902(6) (see BLM70561), part of the definition of a lease within Chapter 2, but the following extract from the guidance applies generally for the purposes of Part 21 of CTA 2010.

`So long as they are taxable revenue items on first principles, we would regard termination receipts and other sums representing consideration for the hire of the asset as ‘normal rent’ within paragraph 20 of Schedule 12 (now CTA10/S896)…. This is the case whether or not such sums are described as rentals in the relevant documentation. By ‘first principles’ we mean the basic charging rules of Schedule A [property income] or Schedule D [trading income] as opposed to special rules, such as the Schedule A premium rules.`