Rural Update - Autumn 2012

News in brief

Building materials and construction services supplied in connection with approved alterations to listed buildings, which previously qualified for zero rate VAT, will now be subject to VAT at the standard rate. The measure was announced in the 2012 Budget and will have effect on supplies made on or after 1 October 2012, but transitional arrangements are already in force. The change will bring the taxation of approved alterations to listed buildings in line with repairs and improvements which are already subject to VAT at the standard rates. As a result of the March Budget, the purchase of residential properties valued at over £2million is subject to SDLT at a rate of 7% for individual purchasers and 15% for corporate purchasers. It is also proposed that, from April 2013, a so-called annual 'mansion' tax will be charged on residential properties held within a corporate structure, at a set tariff, depending on the value of the property. Some good news is that these changes will not apply where a company is acting as trustee or nominee. The current exemption from capital gains tax for non-UK companies will also be removed where offshore companies own residential property. This is likely to extend to non UK trust companies or coporations. Those with residential property held via a corporate structure may wish to review those structures before April 2013. Headstone headaches

The ownership and maintenance of monuments situated within a church or churchyard, falls within the Church of England's own system of planning control, the Faculty Jurisdiction. A faculty is a permissive right to effect some alteration to a church building or its contents, including 'monuments' such as tombs, gravestones or other memorials, and any kerb or setting forming part of such a monument.

A monument set up, or even built into a church, does not become part of the freehold of the church, and is not owned by the church warden or Parochial Church Council. Faculty Jurisdiction Measure 1964 s.3(4) specifies that monuments within a church or churchyard are the property of the people who erected them during their lifetime. Thereafter title to a monument descends to the heir at law of the person in whose memory the monument was erected. Interestingly, this is despite the fact that The Administration of Estates Act 1925 abolished succession through heirs at law in other respects.

It is unclear what interest Faculty Jurisdiction Measure 1964 s.3(4) creates, but it...

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