Fields provide an amenity to the farmhouse

The taxpayers bought a substantial property which comprised a farmhouse gardens swimming pool outbuildings equestrian facilities paddocks and fields. The total area was about 41 acres.

They claimed the fields were non-residential property so that the lower non-residential rate of SDLT applied.

HMRC disagreed saying the whole property including the fields constituted grounds of the dwelling therefore the residential rates applied.

The First-tier Tribunal noted that tribunals had adopted an evaluative approach to determining what comprised grounds of a dwelling after the Upper Tribunal decision in How Development 1 Ltd v CRC [2023] UKUT 0084 (TCC).

The tribunal said the most significant factor in identifying the grounds of a dwelling was the nature of the dwelling and the land and the relationship between the dwelling and the land. In the instant case at the time of the transaction the...