£1 million party to celebrate Agincourt: Don’t take the budget too seriously

A few headline points for the rural economy from today's budget, to add to the mainstream reporting: Deeds of variation for Inheritance Tax: a consultation is to report by Autumn.  It is therefore important to pursue any deeds of variation which may be needed straightaway, and to review wills to ensure that deeds of variation …

Estates Gazette Rural View: Christmas Reading

I have been writing a quarterly column for the Estates Gazette since 2013 called Rural View.  This year's articles have covered Water, Forestry, Scotland and farming safety.  If you'd like to catch up with any of the articles over the Christmas holiday, here they are: Farming Safety: EG Rural View Dec 14 H&S Scotland: Rural View Sep …

Valuation: Cross-roads or cul-de-sac?

This was the title of my presentation at the RICS Wales Rural Conference held on Tuesday 9 December 2014 in Llandrindod Wells.  Here are the slides. The contrast between the complexities of valuing woodland for taxation purposes and renewable energy installations is meant to indicate the broad sweep of the challenge facing the modern rural …

Stamp Duty Land Tax and Commercial Forestry

A curious question was posed at last week's RICS Rural Web class on Forestry Taxation and Valuation.  Can Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on the purchase of commercial forestry be reduced by removing the value of the trees from the overall purchase price?  Further investigation was required. It seems that the Birmingham Stamp Office has …

Woodland Complexities

The latest Rural Briefing from RICS addresses the challenging area of woodland taxation and valuation.  A lot can go wrong as the examples we presented at yesterday's South East Rural Update Conference demonstrated.  One wood worth £70,000 but potentially five different Inheritance Tax bills ranging from nil to £28,000.  Capital Gains Tax was little better …