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Intangible assets—transfer of UK business to an EU resident company

In certain circumstances, where the whole or part of a UK business is transferred between companies which are resident in the UK or an EU member state, a claim can be made to treat any intangible fixed assets included in the transfer as transferred on a tax neutral basis for UK purposes¹. A claim must be made by both transferor and transferee company. The implications here of a tax neutral transfer are the same as for an intra-group transfer (see D1.646)².

These provisions give effect to the European Union Mergers Directive (No 2009/133/EC) dealing with cross-border business reorganisations.

Some definitions in this legislation refer to EU laws which would not have been relevant after IP completion day³. However, in order to retain legal continuity, the legal position existing immediately before the UK left the EU was preserved, to a large degree, by taking a snapshot of the EU law that applied in the UK at that point and bringing