Scottish government clarifies exemption

The Scottish government has confirmed a tax exemption has been available for businesses transferring ownership of property within a group of companies using shares as financial security since the introduction of land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) in 2015.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay confirmed to the finance and constitution committee that the government will bring forward legislation giving retrospective effect to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Group Relief Modification) (Scotland) Order 2018 in line within its original policy intention.

There had been concerns that the exemption had been omitted from the legislation. This was after Revenue Scotland said in an official opinion last year that its wording had failed to give effect to the Scottish government’s official position.

For transactions chargeable to LBTT group relief is allowed through the LBTT (Scotland) Act 2013 Sch 10 when at the effective date of the transaction the...