Readers’ forum: Does option to tax on land also apply to buildings?

I think that one of my farmer clients might have scored an own goal with VAT.

About five years ago he opted to tax some farm land with HMRC because a developer was interested in buying it in order to build and sell new houses. The reason my client opted to tax the site was because a land professional handling the deal was going to charge him a fee of 15% of the sale value plus VAT and my client wanted to claim input tax on this fee.

The deal fell through and my client instead constructed two small warehouses on the land and claimed input tax on all of the costs – the aim has always been to rent out the warehouses and this has happened.

However my client has not charged VAT on the rent since the two tenants moved in three years ago and...