Partial exemption agreed

The appeal concerned two separate claims that had been heard together because they raised a common issue.

The taxpayer in the first case was a trustee of a trust the major beneficiaries of which were the Church Commissioners (64%) and the Secretary of State for Defence in its role as trustee for the Greenwich Hospital (10%). The commissioners and the hospital were registered charities; the other beneficiaries were not.

The taxpayer bought four commercial properties on behalf of the trust between December 2006 and June 2008 and claimed exemption from stamp duty land tax (SDLT) under FA 2003 Sch 8 and s 107 in respect of the proportion of the properties attributable to the charitable beneficiaries.

The second case concerned a university that was a charity. It operated a shared equity scheme under which it helped buy homes for its employees in return for a proportion...