Roland Merz

Solicitor, Weightmans

Roland trained at Forsters LLP, qualifying into the Trusts, Tax and Estates Department in 2020, specialising in Probate with a particular focus on estates involving agricultural property and farming businesses. He moved to Weightmans LLP in 2024, where he joined the International Private Wealth team. Since then, he has broadened his legal practice to include lifetime planning, tax advice and farm business structures (such as farm partnerships and trusts) for clients holding agricultural and business assets.

Contributed to

1

IHT—farmhouses and agricultural property relief (APR)

Practice Notes

This Practice Note considers the availability of agricultural property relief (APR) from inheritance tax (IHT) in the context of farmhouses. For more general information on APR, see Practice Note: IHT—agricultural property relief. See also the main section within that Practice Note: IHT—agricultural property relief — Farmhouses.As a starting point, the primary legislation one looks to when applying APR to land is contained in sections 115 to 124 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984). The definition of agricultural land is contained in IHTA 1984, s 115, which specifies it can be property situated anywhere within the United Kingdom that qualifies as agricultural land/pasture, woodland occupied with agricultural or pasture, buildings used in connection with the intensive rearing of livestock or fish, farm cottages, farm buildings and farmhouses. In order for such buildings to qualify as agricultural property, they have to be 'character appropriate to the agricultural land'.However, when it comes to farmhouses, the statutory framework gives little in the way of defining what is and

Private Client