Entrepreneurs relief available?

Entrepreneurs relief available?

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I have a client who has owned and run a residential lettings 'business' for some thirty years. The portfolio consists of six properties, and totals 14 lettable units. The first property was purchased in 1984, the last in 1996.

He dedicates his 'working' week to:

a) running the letting side of the business, (collecting rents, finding tenants, obtaining refences, doing credit checks, carrying out repairs and maintenance etc), having a dedicated office to do so (potentially 20-40 hours per week)

b) looking for other development/building projects to run alongside (minimal, on average)

He now wishes to sell the portfolio, (piecemeal as opposed to a job lot), and retire, and has been told, (by whom I do not know, but my guess is some sort of tax boutique firm), that the sales of the properties will attract entrepreneurs relief, under the terms of the Elisabeth Moyne Ramsey case.

I have read the case and am not convinced, although I can see why he thinks that the case may apply.

Any/all thoughts would be most welcome.

Many thanks

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By Steve Kesby
18th Jul 2014 11:10

No ER

Elizabeth Moyne Ramsay was established to have a business. That's as much as was established. She certainly wasn't established to have a trade.

In order to claim ER, the business in question must amount to a trade (see TCGA 1992, s. 169S(1)). Nothing you describes suggests that your client's business is a trade.

Who is this boutique firm you speak of? Not Mann, Dann, Thepubb & Co by any chance? They seem not to have bothered to read the legislation.

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