The Act Part 2 – Key Concepts Section 10 – Aircraft used for military, emergency, training or research flights
28.Section 10 provides a tax exemption in relation to flights that serve a public purpose and which would not ordinarily be considered to be commercial or chartered passenger flights. For consistency with the exemption provided in respect of APD under section 29A of the FA 1994, the exemption in section 10 is defined by reference to flights that are exempt from the greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading scheme in place under Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the European Council of 13 October 2003.
29.Directive 2003/87/EC has been amended several times since it was originally made. Under section 12 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010(5) (asp 10), the version of the instrument that will apply for the purposes of this exemption is the version that is in force immediately before the day on which this Act received Royal Assent. A consolidated version of the Directive, as in force when this explanatory note was prepared, is available(6).
30.The relevant paragraphs in Annex I to the Directive, which describe the exempt flights, are listed in section 10(2). To aid the reader, a description of what each relevant paragraph covers has been included in bracketed text. However, this text is indicative only. The flights which are exempt are the flights described in the identified paragraphs of the Directive. Section 10(3) requires those paragraphs to be interpreted in accordance with Commission Decision 2009/450/EC(7) of 8 June 2009, which gives detailed guidance on how to interpret the aviation activity paragraphs in Annex I to the Directive.