The Telegraph reports that thousands of holiday home owners, who rent out their properties, face paying IHT after a test case ruling.
HMRC persuaded High Court judges that a large bungalow overlooking the sea on the Suffolk coast was an investment rather than a business and therefore subject to IHT.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
We say: Shh! Did you hear it too? Could it be the soft, manicured hands of Treasury Officials gently rubbing in anticipation? The faraway cheer of Welsh Nationalists at this unexpected swipe at holiday homeowners? Or simply the papers from the previous Pawson case, where First-tier Tribunal ruled in the opposite direction, being thrown in the bin? (Sorry, sorry, not the bin….the secure paper-shredding and recycling box…)
So we have a bit of clarity at last on furnished holiday lettings. But we’ve got our money on the shrewd taxpayer just looking into other ways to keep HMRC’s Paws off their wealth. (See what we did there?…Pawson…Paws…geddit?)