Title: Relieving the burden of UK capital taxation on business

Authors: Tim Vollans

Addresses: Leader Applied Research Group in Taxation, Coventry University Law School, Coventry, UK

Abstract: Whilst UK Inheritance Tax is applied at a rate of 40% on all assets, the legislation ascribes a nil value to assets meeting the definition of business property. In the absence of a statutory definition of business property, the courts and tribunals have constructed a jurisprudence for the concept, based, but not exclusively reliant, upon interpretations in other fiscal contexts. This paper analyses this approach in the broad context of statutory interpretation and extracts from the various decisions and determinations the implications for the future developmental direction. ||I want the United Kingdom to be the obvious first choice for new investment||. Gordon Brown, Budget Speech 1997.

Keywords: inheritance tax; capital taxation; business property; tax planning; succession planning; judicial interpretation; fiscal principles; United Kingdom; UK; jurisprudence; statutory interpretation; investment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSE.2008.017695

International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 2008 Vol.1 No.3, pp.244 - 256

Published online: 27 Mar 2008 *

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