| 释义 |
Settlement Code
A set of statutory provisions (now enacted in the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 ss 619–48) under which income arising from property that has been gifted is taxed as if it were income of the donor and not of the donee. Broadly, the provisions apply in two types of situation: when an income-producing asset is passed by a parent to a minor child; and whenever there is a gift and it is possible for either income or capital to pass back to the donor at a later date. The Settlement Code is designed for three purposes. The first is to attempt to ensure that a trust cannot be used as a piggy bank, in which income can be taxed at a lower rate than that which applies to the settlor, but is then passed back to the settlor. The second is to restrict income-splitting opportunities within the family between parents and minor children. The third is to restrict the possibility of income being assigned to a person subject to a lower rate of tax, while the capital asset is not gifted. In Jones v Garnett [2007] UKHL 35, the court considered a company selling the services of Mr Jones as a computer consultant. Four of the five judges in the House of Lords declared that the issue of shares to the wife of Jones was a settlement. However, the House of Lords unanimously decided that the exemption in the settlement code applied, so that the dividends paid to the wife were correctly treated as her income and were not taxable as income of the husband. |