Charity land

In many cases the most valuable asset that a charity has is land. They may own it for the purposes of a trading base or an income source or they may rent it for the purposes of a retail presence. Whatever the reason there are relatively strict rules as to its acquisition and disposal.

Buying land for a charity

If a charity is proposing to buy property, there are a number of issues that the charity trustees must consider. In particular, the charity must have the power to buy land, whether that land is functional premises, administrative or trading premises or investment property.

Ordinarily, the charity’s governing document will contain an express power for it to buy property. However, an express power is often limited to the acquisition of functional property only and any sort of ‘sweep-up’ provision in the governing document should not be relied on as conferring power to buy other types of property. However, where there is no express power to buy a particular class of property, the charity trustees of an unincorporated charity can amend the governing document to include such a power.

A statutory

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All in? Court confirms when a settlement is 'made' for the purposes of excluded property (Accuro Trust (Switzerland) SA v The Commissioners for HMRC)

Private Client analysis: This case considered the meaning of 'relevant property' under the settlements regime of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) and, in particular, the time at which this definition is to be tested. The question arose as to whether the trustees of an offshore trust established by a non-UK domiciled settlor were subject to the UK settlements regime in respect of property added to the trust after the settlor became deemed domiciled in the UK, or whether they were exempt from such charges as the trust consisted solely of excluded property. The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) held that whether trust property is excluded property is based on the status of the trust at the time that it was established, not at the time that the property in question was added to the settlement. As a result, the trust in this case did consist solely of excluded property and no inheritance tax (IHT) charges arose as a result of either the ten-year anniversary or capital distributions. The FTT was also asked to consider whether their jurisdiction was appellate, or supervisory only. The FTT held that, while their jurisdiction was supervisory, the questions raised by the trustees were relevant in establishing whether HMRC had acted reasonably and that the outcome (ie that the paid IHT should be refunded and that no further IHT was due) would be the same in either case. Written by Katherine Willmott, senior associate solicitor at Foot Anstey LLP.

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