The Upper Tribunal (UT) has allowed a landowner's appeal against the rejection of his application to be registered as the proprietor of a parcel of land on the basis of adverse possession. The landowner and the owner of adjoining land both carried on...
The 2025 Budget has been and gone and what a farce it has been! As a result of all of the pre-budget leaks and briefings culminating in the leak of the entire budget before it was announced, the last few months have been a torturous time for many people.
For many solicitors, accountants and other professionals including ourselves at Tanners Solicitors LLP, it has resulted in a busy and at times stressful period with clients wanting to exchange and complete transactions, make gifts of farms, land and other assets and complete other tax planning work such as forming partnership trusts before the Budget.
Thankfully the 7-year IHT potentially exempt transfer period for gifts has not been extended and nor have Capital Gains Tax or Stamp Duty Land Tax been altered. Whilst a lot of people may have liked to have seen Stamp Duty Land Tax abolished, the reality of doing so would have caused chaos to the property market and the alternatives could have been even worse.
In addition, the relaxation in the APR / BPR rules to allow for the transfer of any unused part of the APR/BPR £1m nil rate band to a surviving spouse/ civil partner is welcome and congratulations should be given to those who have worked and lobbied hard to achieve this concession.
Whilst some may say that the “mansion tax” to be imposed on residential property valued at over £2m could have been a lot worse and they would be right, it is still unwelcome. This is particularly true for pensioners living in houses they bought decades ago and are now only worth over £2m because of house price inflation. It could also affect some farmers living in old farmhouses, which in a lot of cases are already a burden because of the cost of heating, insuring and maintaining them but which they can’t sell because they are located next to their farm buildings, and they have no other house to move to. There is talk of deferments and exemptions for “tied properties” and we will need to hope that this includes farmhouses – there is of course a precedent for this under the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings.
The introduction of the new “property income tax” is also unwelcome putting more pressure on private landlords and other property investors. No doubt it will lead to even more private landlords selling their rental properties, which is what the Government want but the effect that they always fail to recognise is that all this does is to reduce supply and push up rents in the private rental sector.
Finally, the increase to dividend tax, whilst not unexpected, will have an impact on some pensioners, as well as investors and entrepreneurs and discourage investment in small private companies where in a lot of cases confidence is already low.
Overall, the Budget could have been worse, but it is still not great and it could have been better.