Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

FTT rejects HMRC: grazing/rewilding land not ‘garden or grounds’; separate non‑commercial uses count as non‑residential for SDLT (Withers v HMRC)

Published on: 06 December 2022

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert

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Withers v HMRC [2022] UKFTT 433 (TC)

The landholding comprised a dwelling with a self-contained annexe and gardens and grounds of circa 10 acres, together with a further circa 20 acres. Part of the additional land was used for grazing, and part was entered into a rewilding scheme. The grazing area had been used in that way continuously for 20 years, although a formal written grazing agreement—which did curtail the taxpayer’s use of the land in certain respects—was only adopted in 2019. Pursuant to that agreement, a local farmer grazed his sheep on the land in return for a nominal rent and the farmer’s ongoing upkeep of the land. The rewilding land was subject to stringent conditions limiting the taxpayer’s access and use, and imposed duties on the taxpayer to control pests and to refrain from grazing livestock on the specified land. In both instances, the written agreements regulating the arrangements were in place and operative at the effective date of the land transaction. HMRC argued that the land acquired was entirely residential on the grounds that the grazing and...

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