Agricultural Property Relief

Relief is available for transfers:

• In life;
• On death; and
• When agricultural property is chargeable as settled property.

Relief is not available if the agricultural property is subject to a binding contract for sale at the time of the transfer.

Agricultural property means agricultural land or pasture; woodland occupied with agricultural land or pasture; buildings used in connection with rearing of livestock or fish; farm cottages; farm buildings and farmhouses. In the case of farm cottages, farm buildings and farmhouses they must be of a “character appropriate” to the agricultural land.

Agricultural Property Relief is not available on assets such as paddocks used for riding ponies; farms not occupied for farming purposes; general woodland and farm cottages which are not occupied by farm workers.

To qualify for Agricultural Property Relief the property must be:

• occupied by the transferor for the purposes of agriculture for two years ending with the date of the transfer; or
• owned by the transferor throughout the period of seven years ending with the date of the transfer and must have been occupied (for the purposes of agriculture) throughout that period either by the transferor or by another person.

There are additional rules relating to successive transfers.

Ownership by a company (in which the transferor has shares or securities) for the requisite seven-year period satisfies the ownership condition, provided that the transferor has also owned those shares or securities for the seven-year period.

Therefore, if the shareholder has owned his shares for seven years and the company has owned the land during that period (the land being occupied by a third party for agricultural purposes), the shareholder will be entitled to Agricultural Property Relief on the value of the shares in so far as the value is attributable to agricultural property.

Members of a partnership are treated as owning any property which is owned by the partnership. 

As a result, if a partner has held their partnership interest for a period of seven years and the partnership has owned the land during that period (the land being occupied for agricultural purposes during that period by a third party), the partner is entitled to Agricultural Property Relief on his partnership share in so far as the value is attributable to agricultural property.

he phrases ‘agricultural purposes’ and ‘for the purposes of agriculture’ are interchangeable in the legislation. Whether property is occupied for the purposes of agriculture will depend upon the fact of the case.

To qualify for Agricultural Property Relief, property must be both agricultural property and occupied for agricultural purposes. It is most important that both requirements are satisfied.

Land which is used for the following purposes is normally accepted as being for the purposes of agriculture:

• cultivation to produce food for human consumption;
• supporting livestock kept to produce food for human consumption, e.g. milk, meat, wool etc.;
• animals kept for farm work e.g. horses;
• land set aside for permanent or rotational fallow.

This is the value ‘which would be the value of the property if the property were subject to a perpetual covenant prohibiting its use otherwise than as agricultural property’. A specialist valuation is therefore imperative to ensure the correct value is attributed to the land and buildings.

It is possible that there may be a higher market value, such as in the case of ‘hope’ or development value or where the property may attract wealthy commuters seeking a rural lifestyle.

If Agricultural Property Relief does not apply to a proportionate value then Business Property Relief may apply to relieve the remainder – see our guides to Inheritance Tax Planning, Business Property Relief and Making Gifts for more information on Inheritance Tax exemptions and reliefs.

Farmhouses – HMRC, when deciding if a house is a farmhouse, rely on the ‘elephant test’ i.e. while it might not be able to define a farmhouse it is generally easy to identify one. There has been a wealth of case law covering this one issue and there is a five stage test which includes aspects such as whether the house is relevant to the size of the land and whether the farm office is located there.

Farm Cottages – To qualify for Agricultural Property Relief farm cottages must be appropriate to the property and the land occupied with the cottages must be of a character appropriate to the property. Additionally it must be occupied by someone of the required status (e.g. farm workers).

Farm Buildings – Farm buildings must of a character appropriate to the land – which they usually are unless the land is very small. The building must be used for the purposes of agriculture. Agricultural Property Relief will not be available for derelict buildings.

Horses – A paddock will not qualify for Agricultural Property Relief in itself. The breeding and rearing of horses on a stud farm does qualify for Agricultural Property Relief subject to meeting the qualifying conditions.

Planning Point – Agricultural Property Relief will be diluted if any mortgage or charge reduces the value of the agricultural property.

This is a complex area of the law, and we recommend that anyone who believes Agricultural Property Relief to be available to seek appropriate advice to ensure any relief is maximised and not lost or reduced by failing to meet some of the qualifying criteria.