HC Deb 11 July 1956 vol 556 cc460-1
Sir E. Boyle

I beg to move, in page 14, line 34, after "April", to insert "or to a later day".

This Amendment is consequential on the Amendment which extends the mills and factories allowance for another three years.

Amendment agreed to.

Sir E. Boyle

I beg to move, in page 14, line 37, at the end to insert: (3) Where capital expenditure is or has been incurred on preparing, cutting, tunnelling or levelling land for the purposes of preparing the land as a site for the installation of machinery or plant, and apart from this sub-section no allowance could be made in respect of that expenditure under Chapter I or II of Part X of the Income Tax Act, 1952, then in relation to allowances and charges for the year 1956–57 and subsequent years of assessment, as regards that expenditure—

  1. (a) the machinery or plant shall be treated for the purposes of the said Chapter I as a building or structure (whether or not it would be so treated apart from this subsection); and
  2. (b) subsection (1) of section two hundred and seventy-six (which provides, among other things, that allowances shall not be made under the said Chapter I in respect of expenditure on a building or structure if allowances can be made under Chapter II in respect of the same or other expenditure on it) shall apply with the omission of the reference to Chapter II:
Provided that as regards expenditure to which the said Chapter I is applied by this subsection, the appointed day, for the purposes of any reference thereto in the said Chapter I except in section two hundred and sixty-five (which relates to initial allowances), shall be the sixth day of April, nineteen hundred and fifty-six. This is a slightly more substantial point. The purpose of this Amendment is to deal with a type of case, not covered by Clause 15, in which my right hon. Friend thinks that capital allowances might none the less very reasonably be given. This is the case where expenditure is incurred in preparing the site for an industrial installation which might not be regarded as a building or structure within the meaning of Clause 15 (1). Examples are to be found in certain plant and machinery forming part of an oil refinery.

The proposed Amendment provides that where capital expenditure is incurred on the preparation of a site for the installation of plant and machinery and the expenditure would not otherwise rank for capital allowances, then, for the purpose of capital allowances for 1956–57 and future years, the plant or machinery is to be treated, as regards that expenditure, as a building or structure.

Amendment agreed to.