Section 86: Trusts for benefit of employees., Inheritance Tax Act 1984

Where settled property is held on trusts which, either indefinitely or until the end of a period (whether defined by a date or in some other way) do not permit any of the settled property to be applied otherwise than for the benefit of—

persons of a class defined by reference to employment in a particular trade or profession, or employment by, or office with, a body carrying on a trade, profession or undertaking, or

persons of a class defined by reference to marriage to or civil partnership with, or relationship to, or dependence on, persons of a class defined as mentioned in paragraph (a) above,

then, subject to subsection (3) below, this section applies to that settled property or, as the case may be, applies to it during that period.

Where settled property is held on trusts permitting the property to be applied for the benefit of persons within paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) above, those trusts shall not be regarded as outside the description specified in that subsection by reason only that they also permit the settled property to be applied for charitable purposes.

Where any class mentioned in subsection (1) above is defined by reference to employment by or office with a particular body, this section applies to the settled property only if—

the class comprises all or most of the persons employed by or holding office with the body concerned, or

the trusts on which the settled property is held are those of a profit sharing scheme approved in accordance with Schedule 9 to the Taxes Act 1988; or

the trusts on which the settled property is held are those of a share incentive plan approved under Schedule 2 to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, or

the settled property consists of or includes ordinary share capital of a company which meets the trading requirement and the trusts on which the settled property is held are those of a settlement which—

meets the controlling interest requirement with respect to the company, and

meets the all-employee benefit requirement with respect to the company.

For the purpose of determining whether subsection (3)(d) is satisfied in relation to settled property which consists of or includes ordinary share capital of a company—

section 236I of the 1992 Act applies to determine whether the company meets the trading requirement (with references to "C" being read as references to that company),

sections 236J, 236K, 236M and 236T (but not 236L) of the 1992 Act apply to determine whether the settlement meets the all-employee benefit requirement and the controlling interest requirement (with references in those sections to "C" being read as references to that company), and

"ordinary share capital" has the meaning given by section 1119 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010.

Where this section applies to any settled property—

the property shall be treated as comprised in one settlement, whether or not it would fall to be so treated apart from this section, and

an interest in possession in any part of the settled property shall be disregarded for the purposes of this Act (except section 55) if that part is less than 5 per cent. of the whole.

Where any property to which this section applies ceases to be comprised in a settlement and, either immediately or not more than one month later, the whole of it becomes comprised in another settlement, then, if this section again applies to it when it becomes comprised in the second settlement, it shall be treated for all the purposes of this Act as if it had remained comprised in the first settlement.

Section 86: Trusts for benefit of employees.

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