RDRM74710 - Temporary repatriation facility: Scope of designation: BIR investments: Overview
Business investment relief (BIR) allows foreign income and gains from years in which an individual was subject to the remittance basis to be invested in a UK company without triggering a remittance and tax charge, provided it has been used to make a ‘qualifying investment’. BIR is available for qualifying investments of pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains until 5 April 2028.
Once a qualifying investment has been made there are several actions, known as ‘potentially chargeable events’, which can cause the relief to be lost, unless the foreign income or gains are taken back offshore or used to make another qualifying investment within a specified time; these are known as ‘mitigation steps’. Where the relief is lost, the foreign income and gains used to make the investment are treated as remitted to the UK. See RDRM34310 onwards for BIR guidance.
Foreign income or gains that have been used to make qualifying BIR investments are eligible to be designated under the temporary repatriation facility (TRF). They do not have to be taken out of the company to be designated.
Individuals are not required to designate all the foreign income and gains that they have invested in a company or group. They may want to make a partial designation (see RDRM74720) or designate the foreign income or gains within some qualifying investments but not others, where they have multiple investments (see RDRM74730). Where only some of the invested foreign income and gains have been designated, these will be treated as remitted in priority to any undesignated foreign income and gains.
Where the foreign income or gains have been designated and the TRF charge has been paid, no further tax charges will arise if there is a subsequent remittance on the disposal of the investment or a breach of the BIR conditions, that is, where there has been a potentially chargeable event. Also, a mitigation step will not need to be taken – see RDRM74740 for further details.
For the purposes of the BIR rules, amounts of designated qualifying overseas capital to which the rules apply are TRF capital – see RDRM75100 for a definition of ‘TRF capital’.