Agricultural & Business Relief - Beyond the Basics

Introduction

This full day in-person seminar is aimed at private client solicitors, farm accountants and tax advisers. It will consider the maximisation of the interaction of Business Relief (BR) and Agricultural Relief (AR) on a diversified farm and estate.

The advanced level session will outline the need for IHT planning NOW for the farm business, especially with the move away from pure farming, considerations around the implications of claims for AR and BR around the Agriculture Act 2020, especially ELMs (Environmental Land Management schemes) and the need to “fill the subsidy gap” with profitable diversification/rewilding and/or development projects including carbon credits. The session will incorporate the Budget 2023.

What You Will Learn

The course will cover the following:

• The importance of farm values for AR and BR planning and the need for a strong quality probate valuation - impact of Foster case on “hope value” and protection
• The basis of hope valuation s.160 following Foster - top down v bottom up
• Land registration as part of AR/BR understanding
• Partnership property and the need for legal clarity = 100% BR v 50% BR, especially with high farm values
• Partnership property and Trust Registration (TRS)
• The protection of a well drafted partnership agreement for maximising BR (and AR)
• The role of the executor in AR/BR understanding
• The executor’s need to understand the approval and signing of the IHT 400 including AR/BR Claims
• The Estate of Thomas Gill, the farmhouse and the agricultural licence
• The risk of a Larke v Nugus statement request, evidence of AR/ BR verification and planning at the will drafting stage
• Using the power of the LPA (Lasting Power of Attorney) as an IHT planning tool
• The role of farm accounts as evidence - post Ham v Bell for AR/BR maximisation and importance of quality for IHT 400
• Lifetime gifting to protect AR/BR following the sidelined APPG report
• Heritage farm property used in a farming operation
• The difference between 100% AR and 50% AR - the AHA (Agricultural Holdings Act) Tenancy 1986 and the FBT respectively - look at Agriculture Tenancy Reform under the Agriculture Act 2020
• Achieving 100% BR on let cottages - Balfour and Farmer - OTS suggestion of 80% trading % - the spectrum of trading and not trading
• New farm trading cases, e.g. Griffiths, Elliot Balnakeil, Blaenau Bach Farm, Babylon Farms, Heather Whyte and impact on the AR/BR claims
• Reviewing AR on farm workers cottages and the role of the AST (assured short hold tenancy)
• The recent cases of Vigne, Graham and Firth - tax tribunal guidance on liveries and furnished holiday accommodation (FHA) and the apart-hotel
• The availability of IHT reliefs for the stud and other ‘non-agricultural’ equine activities
• Techniques in completing the agricultural and equine elements of the IHT 400 to strengthen AR and BR claims with evidence and case history
• IHT penalties - the risk of unsupported/incorrect claims for AR/BR
• PI protection on the large quantum of AR/BR claims - the Mehjoo case and the ‘need for a specialist’