50A Agreements for more than 35 years charged as leases.

(1) In this section “public private partnership arrangement” has the meaning assigned to it by section 3(1)(a) of the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Arrangements) Act 2002.

(2) An agreement for a lease or with respect to the letting of any lands, tenements, or heritable subjects for any term exceeding 35 years, shall be charged with the same duty as if it were an actual lease made for the term and consideration mentioned in the agreement where 25 per cent or more of that consideration has been paid.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply to an agreement for a lease entered into solely in connection with a public private partnership arrangement.

(4) Where duty has been paid, in respect of an agreement for a lease, in accordance with subsection (2), a lease made in conformity with the agreement for a lease shall not be chargeable with any duty, and the Commissioners, on application, either shall denote the payment of the ad valorem duty on the lease, or shall transfer the ad valorem duty to the lease on production to them of the agreement for a lease, duly stamped.

(5) The ad valorem duty paid on any agreement for a lease, in accordance with subsection (2), shall be returned where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that the agreement for a lease has been rescinded or annulled.