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Given that the country's up muck street without a paddle, you may be apt to find The Chancellor of the Exchequer (we'll call him Gordon because he thought of it) scheming on all manner of ways to extract extra money out of you folk, who are making something for yourselves, so that he can shove your cash into areas where people aren't; perhaps your cash will somehow find itself into that bottomless slurry pit known as the European Union. This man is not a man who will do this in the open, but in a clandestine manner. Remember this is a man that pillaged pension funds and is part of a government that has the audacity to cant on about the pension crisis - the words Dick and Turpin come to mind.
So with this in mind, think on, because the next target will be your development project or in other words the new planning gain supplement, which apparently becomes operative in 2009.
The rate of this tax is not yet known, but rumours abound that it will be a modest portion of your gain. Now Gordon is your average socialist version of Gordon Gekko, a character made infamous in the film Wall Street and in particular, his speech about greed being good and so Gordon's interpretation of what is modest may not coincide with what you reckon is reasonable.
If my understanding is correct, the tax will be levied upon the uplift in land value less current use value following a grant of planning permission. Rumour has it that the tax will need to be paid before the development can begin and guess what, capital gains tax may also be payable.
When this little gem started, the talk was only about residential development and now it seems that it will catch all forms of development and bear in mind that it is the grant of full planning permission that is the valuation date for tax purposes.
Doubtless, Gordon sees himself as a latter day Robin Hood. I wonder whether we would mind as much if the money he pillaged were not distributed via Armitage Shanks.
Of course, I may be totally out of kilter with reality. It may be that Gordon feels that because his Inheritance Tax thresholds have not kept pace with house price inflation and he is reaping millions, if not billions from this, that he may not want to shaft us in respect of the only way some farms can continue to exist - ie by diversification.
And so there we have it - at best, by checking with your accountant, you will find I am wrong and hopefully have a laugh out of this article or at worst you will find I am right but be able to make plans to speed up whatever you have in mind.
Anyway must go - I'm taking Black Bess to be shod.
Tom.
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