Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

35.   Loans or advances by a controlled company to a shareholder, director or higher paid employee

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    (1)   Where a controlled company makes a loan or advances any money to a shareholder therein, an associate of a shareholder (within the meaning of section 39(3), a director or a higher paid employee thereof, the amount of such loan or advance shall, subject to this section, be deemed to be income accrued to the shareholder, director or employee in the income year in which the loan or advance was made, unless he or she satisfies the Comptroller that—

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      (a)     the loan or advance is repaid within one year after the end of the income year in which it is made; and

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      (b)     that the repayment was not made as part of a series of loans or advances and repayments.

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    (2)   Subsection (1) shall not apply to any loan or advance made by a company in the ordinary course of its business where such business includes the lending of money.

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    (3)   Where a loan or advance is made to which subsection (1) applies and the shareholder, associate, director or employee in a subsequent income year repays the loan or advance either wholly or in part, the shareholder, director or employee is entitled to relief, in the year of income for which the repayment is made, by way of a tax credit of so much of the tax payable for the year of income for which the amount was considered to have been income as is attributable to the amount repaid.

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    (4)   In this section a loan or advance to a shareholder, director or employee is considered to include—

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      (a)     the amount of any payment made by the company to a third person on his or her behalf; or

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      (b)     the sale price of any trading stock or other property sold by the company to him or her,

in respect of which debt the shareholder, director or employee is debited in the books of account of the company.

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    (5)   For the purpose of this section, an employee whose remuneration from a company exceeds $24,000 per annum is considered to be a higher paid employee.