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Forget mansion tax…..get ready for garden tax
by Alex Steger on Dec 03, 2012 at 10:48
The Liberal Democrat’s plans for a mansion tax may have been vetoed by David Cameron, but property size still matters as HM Revenue & Customs is looking to levy more tax against homeowners with big gardens.
According to the Sunday Times the taxman is dusting off an obscure rule which has been in the statute book since the 1960s and would see it charge Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on the sale of land above one and a quarter acres, around the size of a football pitch.
Currently homeowners can sell their main residence and its grounds free from CGT where the garden is less than 1.23 acres.
Where grounds are bigger full relief can still be claimed where owners can show the grounds are required for ‘the reasonable enjoyment of the house as a resident’.
HMRC confirmed to the Sunday Times that it was making it harder to claim above the limit by cross checking stamp duty records paid by most homes owners with CGT declarations by sellers.
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George Galloway blasts ‘toothless, gutless’ FSA’s handling of Cru
by Daniel Grote on May 16, 2013 at 07:56
8 comments so far. Why not have your say?
SP
Dec 03, 2012 at 10:54
but you can buy woodland as an investment ........ strange world we live in.
Can we not vote for the people thinking of these ideas, rather than just those who give it the go ahead?
report thisHugo Craggs
Dec 03, 2012 at 11:22
having ponies just got even more expensive...
report thisHarriet Marlow
Dec 03, 2012 at 11:29
It's not a garden, it's a carbon-offset vehicle to reduce my home's environmental impact. Honest.
report thislee rawding
Dec 03, 2012 at 11:40
Bring back the windows tax!
Charge them more if they have glass in them ;-)
report thisDynamike
Dec 03, 2012 at 11:49
Idiots - just stop wasting so much of our tax money in the first place and you then won't have to waste even more money on barmy schemes to take even more from us.
report thisAnitaki
Dec 03, 2012 at 14:09
Yet more confirmation that
A) This government cannot get relected
B) It knows it
C) It has got so far off course that as the next election nears, they will start fighting amongst themselves for a Tory leadership contest
Don't forget, we have already passed the half-way mark, and for any government with "nasties" on its agenda, they need to have been announced/delivered before the first 2 years have been completed.
report thisRob C
Dec 03, 2012 at 14:39
You can't get elected by saying "we'll cut spending". Hence the current Government had to give a guarantee of no cuts to the blessed NHS (an annual budget somewhere north of £100 billion). The NHS budget is is dwarfed by the DWP budget and every time IDS tries to suggest a cut or limit to this bloated mechanism the Lib Dems and Labour cry that it is a disgrace. The proletariat have no idea what has been done in their name for the past 70 years. Maybe they don't want to know but if this continues the UK will have to default and democracy is at risk. It's just the 1970s all over again....sick man of Europe.....winter of discontent etc etc.
report thisIrritable Vowels
Dec 04, 2012 at 14:02
In order to avoid this proposed garden tax, I shall use the proposed relaxation in the rules for planning permission to convert my bungalow into a mansion, thereby swallowing up some of my garden and reducing it's size below the limit.
Ha!
If they can come up with idiotic ideas, so can I.
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