Mainstream corporation tax rate is currently paid on annual profits of more than £1.5m.

Mainstream corporation tax is currently payable nine months from the end of a company's accounting period.

The ACT may be offset against the company's liability to mainstream corporation tax in the usual way.

This may cause a problem to the offeror if it does not have a sufficient liability to mainstream corporation tax against which to offset the ACT.

To achieve this outcome, corporation tax has two components: advance corporation tax (ACT), and mainstream corporation tax (MCT).

On this basis, the RBT considers that this is evidence of the undesirable aspect of credibility of DCT payments against mainstream corporation tax.

Advance corporation tax not recoverable against the mainstream corporation tax liability for the current or previous years is written off to the profit and loss account unless its future recovery can be foreseen.

This is preferable in cash-flow terms to Newco's receiving group income from Target and having to pay ACT with no mainstream corporation tax of its own to absorb the ACT.

Payment of Mainstream Corporation Tax For accounting periods ending after 30 June 1999, companies paying at the full rate have to make quarterly payments on account, based on their estimated liability for the year.

Credit is generally given for ACT paid when mainstream corporation tax is paid at the end of the year and can be carried forward if ACT paid exceeds corporation tax payable.

As a rule of thumb, if Target has sufficient distributable reserves to effect the purchase of its own shares, it will also have sufficient capacity to carry back against the preceding six years' mainstream corporation tax all the ACT incurred on the distribution, so this should not be a real cost.

If the president of one of our major trades unions is right when he asserts that no company now pays mainstream corporation tax (that it only pays tax on the dividends paid to its shareholders), it would cost the nation nothing to do away with mainstream corporation tax, but think what a boon that could be.