New queries, issue 4509

Option confusion

The tax treatment of compensation received after an option has lapsed

We act for a company that originally leased the property from which it traded. It also had an option to buy the freehold and its solicitors advised that this would expire in May 2013. The company decided to exercise the option and started to raise the necessary finance.

In March 2013 the solicitors advised that they had made a mistake and the option would expire at the end of that month not May 2013.

The company was unable to exercise the option at that time because it did not have the funding in place. The property owners would not extend the option agreement and instead increased the price of the property by £150 000. The property was eventually purchased in August 2013 and our client paid the higher price for it.

The company...