Readers’ forum: Capital gains

I have a client who is a golf club. It is a basic members club and not a limited company or a community amateur sports club. It is registered for corporation tax has a unique taxpayer reference number and pays corporation tax on profits from non-members and bank interest.

A developer wants to buy all the land and the board are keen to sell. They will then dissolve the club after distributing the net proceeds among the members.

As far as I understand the trustees/board are liable to report the capital gain on the difference between the March 1982 value and sale price allowing for indexation to December 2017 fees and enhancement expenditure in the normal way.

One of the members who is an accountant says that is wrong and that each of the members is in effect selling part of the land (the club holds...