There was some welcome news from Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement for small and medium sized companies regarding the tax relief available if a company makes a loss.

Historically, corporation tax loss reliefs have mirrored the principles upon which income tax loss reliefs have been based – if a loss is incurred in a trading business, those losses can be offset against other types of income arising in the same year as the loss, and may be carried back against income of the previous year. But if a loss is not relieved at that point, the use of a carried forward loss is generally restricted to being used against future profits from the same trade only.

Changes are proposed which will mean that losses arising on or after 1 April 2017, when carried forward, will be useable against profits from other income streams or other companies within a group. This will apply to most types of losses but not to capital losses. The removal of the restrictions on the use of carried forward losses is very welcome. The existing rules can result in losses not being used, particularly where a company closes down a loss making trade.

There are some elements of the change which may be unwelcome for large companies. From 1 April 2017, companies will only be able to use losses carried forward against up to 50% of their profits above £5 million. For groups, the £5 million allowance will apply to the group. It should be noted that this restriction applies to losses carried forward arising at any time. However over 99% of companies will be unaffected by these restrictions due to the £5 million allowance.

The other good news for all companies is that the corporation tax rate will fall from 20% to 19% for the Financial Year beginning 1 April 2017, and will reduce again to 17% for the Financial Year beginning 1 April 2020.