Land is used as a car park - let out on 28 day tenancies. Someone physically collects the rents from the people using the car park. If sold, would it qualify for max business taper relief after two years or rollover of the gain into other business assets?
Kevin Salter
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This is not a trade, so the land does not qualify for relief.
There is a well known distinction between a trade and a business.A long list of cases deals with whether the exploitation of land is a trade or merely a business, the best known being Salisbury House Estate Ltd. v.Fry, and in another context Gittos v Barclay-and the answer is practically always that it is not a trade.
Rollover relief applies only to land occupied for the purposes of a trade, and an additional and difficult to understand provision
in s.156(2)(b)can deny rollover relief even where the land is occupied for the purpose of a trade, but the trade is one of providing services for the occupier of the land. What is meant by the term "occupier" is itself a difficult one, the answers to which may perhaps be found in Rating, rather than Tax, law.