Land & Property TOGC 1
In this case we advised a client that owned a large commercial building that was being developed into both residential and commercial on the most efficient VAT structure of transferring the building to an off-shore trust. An option to tax was needed for the vendor given that circa £250K VAT was at stake on the obtaining of planning permission for residential conversion but the physical application of VAT to the purchase price would involve additional £120K SDLT being payable which the purchaser wanted to avoid. There were existing tenants in the commercial element which were to remain and the residential conversion was to be developed out. We managed to facilitate TOGC status to give both parties actual savings and this included detailed submission to and agreement from HMRC that TOGC status applicable.
Our advice is that with all things connected to land & property transactions, prior planning should be made to maximise the VAT position.
