CG61940 - Roll-over relief: compulsory acquisition of land: authority exercising or having compulsory powers

TCGA92/S243 (5)

The phrase “an authority exercising or having compulsory powers” is defined by TCGA92/S243 (5) to include a person or body of persons:

• acquiring the land compulsorily, or
• who has been or could be authorised to acquire it compulsorily for the purposes for which it is acquired, or
• for whom another person or body of persons is or could be authorised to acquire it.

So it is not necessary that the land is acquired using compulsory purchase powers. It is only necessary that compulsory purchase powers are available to acquire the land for the purpose for which it is being acquired.

The decision of the First Tier Tribunal in Abdul Ahad v HMRC Commissioners [2009] UKFTT353, contains a useful discussion of this definition.

Statement of Practice13/93

For the purposes of TCGA92/S247, the expression `an authority exercising or having compulsory powers’ may be regarded as including sitting tenants who exercise their rights

• to acquire the freehold reversion or an extension of the lease under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 or the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993
• to acquire the freehold or an extension of the lease under the Housing Acts 1985 to 1996
• to acquire tenanted property under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987
• as a crofting community body to acquire croft land under the provisions of Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

It may also be regarded as including a community group exercising its rights under Part 3A of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 to buy abandoned, neglected or detrimental land.