Client has provided me with a list of £550,000 spent over a period of some fifteen years on making nearly 40 improvements to a property, some for as little as £900 ( on installing a damp proof course ) up to £104,000 ( on a new garage, with workshop and games room above and all new services.)
Some of the items on the list, no invoices available, are fairly obviously improvements.
Others, not so, especially where, for example, £42,000 on garden landscaping, £79,000 on a conservatory or £35,000 on a new kitchen, could include who knows what.
Many thanks to anyone leaving a reply.
Replies (9)
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The comprehensive list you seek is in TCGA 1992, s 38(1)(b) and s 39(1) and (2). If, in relation to any item of expenditure you can tick all the boxes in s 38(1)(b) and not fall foul of either s 39(1) or the s 39(2) "as if" provision, then your expenditure is allowable. It's that simple.
I wouldn't even start without having the majority of the receipts and checked whether or not any of them had been relieved elsewhere.
If over 15 years do check that the works are still evident and exist within the property as at the point of sale, if a kitchen was put in 15 years ago then ripped out two years ago and a new kitchen fitted, then the cost of the first kitchen, not being in existence at date of sale, I believe cannot relieve against any current sale.
Over time multiple changes may occur to the same part, e.g. I am currently yet again changing my small garden, this is iteration three since we purchased the house in 1997, as it stood on purchase is now barely visible, a pear tree and some repurposed bits of the first shed are really all that is left, the grass for trampolines/swings/football is now long gone. The first big change was when fruit cage, raised beds etc were installed, these also are now all removed (repurposing the timber) as we currently move into its third iteration of higher planters( as I get older and dislike kneeling) and I am now also trying my hand at vertical gardening.
Interesting point ... I installed a heavy-duty (solid mahogany with brass corners and pull handles) set of kitchen-units in about 1980, and only a few years ago took it out (carefully) for re-installation at another property (new carcases but everything else 'original'). So logically I've lost out on claiming both the original cost and the more recent one (where I didn't 'sell' the furniture to myself)! C'est la vie.
And be careful with vertical gardening. If you don't install a raised border at the bottom then you'll still be doing a lot of bending/kneeling, but if you do then anything much above 2.5 m will be even harder to reach. Age comes to all of us, sometimes in unexpected ways. Last autumn I decided to tackle a weed that had taken advantage of lockdown to settle in, but I hadn't taken account of the iceberg principle (as applied to the length of its tap-root) and broke a couple of ribs trying to extract it!
I will not be going that high as the shed/fence I wish to work up is not that high (7ft to 6ft) , your point is well made re lower down , maybe bins with compost/perlite/ seed trays stored placed along the bottom would work .
Plan is to work out some form of semi automatic watering from the shed gutter above into the planters using tubes/drippers (Heath Robinson eat your heart out), initially open to the elements but designed so that longer term sloping timber/twin skin perspex over the shed shelf rack (and another) creates a mini area (1.5m x1.5m) protected from the elements- in effect a warm potting shed with some self watering planters (found decent cheap range 72*20*20 on Amazon, 4 for £19.99)
So knees will creak for a while longer as currently have six 3 metre scaffold boards to sand and oil with a further six 3.9 metre ones are due on Friday, I can still kneel readily enough but the getting back up takes a touch more effort these days, pretty sad as I am only 61 tomorrow, really not that old.
Happy Birthday tomorrow. I can remember that exact feeling like it was (no not yesterday, more like 6 years ago) ... oh, apparently it really was 6+ years ago!
My plan is to get my 40x80 garden in full order. However, it is difficult to constantly carry a tool with me, and therefore I acquired a dump truck for convenience. On the https://mygardenzone.com/best-dump-cart-for-lawn-tractor/ website, I looked at what options are and chose the one that suits me more.