CG74050 - Land: valuation: Valuation Office Agency: no need to refer to

  1. Introduction

This guidance deals with referrals to the Valuation Office Agency.

It sets out when a referral is required and circumstances where one is not required.

It also provide details of the process where multiple valuations are required as well as detail on post transaction valuation checks.

  1. Referrals to the Valuation Office Agency

All valuations of land in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must be referred to the Valuation Office Agency (or Land & Property Services Northern Ireland) unless they fall within the exceptions listed below.

It is important that we deal with customers fairly and consistently. If the guidance is ignored and valuations are not referred to the Valuation Office Agency you give grounds for complaint to any other customer with a similar valuation which has been referred. Similarly, if you take it upon yourself to depart from the Valuation Office Agency’s valuation, even on a without prejudice basis, you encourage the idea that agreement need not be reached with the Valuation Office Agency because a better agreement can be obtained from an Officer of HM Revenue & Customs.

In all of these cases the work of the Department is made more difficult. Agreement is made less likely if the guidance is not consistently followed.

  1. Valuation considerations

The guidance at CG16200C onwards provides advice on the valuation of assets generally for the purpose of Capital Gains Tax or Corporation Tax on chargeable gains. In particular you should note:-

  • CG16200 which explains the circumstances in which a valuation is likely to be needed and who is responsible for obtaining valuations.
  • CG16270 which explains the treatment of transfers of assets at undervalue to an employee or director.

  1. Post transaction valuation checks

The guidance at CG16600P describes the post transaction valuation check service. If you receive a request to check a valuation of land you should deal with it as follows:-

  • if the number of valuations makes the case suitable for the Land Portfolio Valuation Unit, follow the guidance at Section 7 below.
  • if the valuation falls within the limit set out in Section 5 below you can accept it without reference to the Valuation Office Agency.
  • in all other cases complete form CG20, see CG74300 and ask for a ‘not negotiated’ valuation.

You should inform the Valuation Office Agency that the valuation is needed for a post transaction valuation check and supply a copy of the CG computation and any other information that has been provided in support of the request.

CG16612 explains the action that you should take when you receive the return for the tax year or accounting period in which the transaction took place.

  1. Referral exceptions

If you receive a Capital Gains computation which includes a valuation of land or of any interest in land you must refer that valuation to the Valuation Office Agency to be checked unless it is in one of the following categories:-

  • Valuations which have already been ascertained for probate; see CG16251.
  • Any hypothetical valuation, for example where you are asked to consider a land valuation obtained to work out the tax effect of a transaction which has not yet been carried out. Such valuations should not be referred to the Valuation Office Agency and you should not offer any comment.
  • A request for a valuation under the Non-Statutory Clearance process as asset valuations are specifically not covered by this process.
  • A request for a valuation under the Non-statutory Clearance service where the asset valuation does not involve the interpretation of tax law or its application. For guidance on post transaction valuations requests using form CG34 see CG16600P.
  • Any valuation which falls within the multiple land valuation scheme, see Section 7 below.
  • Any valuation which falls within the limits of Section 8 below.
  • Certain valuations related to a claim made under TCGA92/S165 or TCGA92/S260 to hold over the gain, see CG66450C.

You may also agree certain apportionments of consideration given or received on the acquisition or disposal of assets which include land, see CG74150.

Unless the guidance in this section allows you to accept a land valuation you must obtain the Valuation Office Agency’s advice in every case. Any failure to follow the guidance can compromise the Valuation Office Agency’s efforts in other cases and can lead to unacceptable loss of tax.

  1. Information required by the Valuation Office Agency

The Valuation Office Agency’s responsibility is to review or provide a valuation on the basis of the information which you supply. The information which must be supplied to the Valuation Office Agency is summarised in the section on completing form CG20 at CG74300.

If you do not provide the information the Valuation Office Agency may not be able to carry out a full check of the returned valuation or provide you with a reliable valuation. In some cases the Valuation Office Agency may not be able to make any valuation and may have to return to you for further information.

The Valuation Office Agency does not have access to the information gathering powers which you have as an officer of the Board. The Valuation Office Agency may write to the customer to obtain information but may not be able to obtain it. This can lead to an unnecessary delay in providing you with a valuation.

Delays can be minimised if you obtain the information the Valuation Office Agency will need and use the information powers available to you where appropriate.

  1. Multiple land valuation scheme - Land Portfolio Valuation Unit

Where a person makes a substantial number of disposals in any accounting period or year of assessment the need to obtain valuations can impose a considerable burden of work on HMRC Offices and on the Valuation Office Agency. In suitable cases the Land Portfolio Valuation Unit of the Valuation Office Agency will take over the job of referring values for an accounting period or a year of assessment to the appropriate office of the Valuation Office Agency.

For customers included in the scheme the Land Portfolio Valuation Unit will:-

  • advise upon a selective or sample based approach and agree this with the customers if required
  • ask local Valuation Office Agency offices to review an appropriate proportion of the values returned to inform risks and provide a basis for wider agreement
  • keep both you and the customer fully informed of the progress of each case
  • report to you when all valuations have been agreed and provide a list of the valuations where the returned value has been changed.

You will not need to complete any forms CG20 or monitor progress or keep your customer informed.

Any customer can be included in the scheme whether:-

  • an individual
  • a trust
  • a company or a group of companies
  • any other taxable person.

The criteria for formal inclusion in the scheme are:-

  • A minimum of 30 valuations for the customer which need to be referred to the Valuation Office Agency for a single accounting period or year of assessment. A group of companies may be considered together so that if there are 30 valuations needed for the whole group in the accounting period the group can be considered for inclusion in the scheme.
  • Computations are presented by the customer in a way which will allow the Valuation Office Agency to identify the property to be valued.
  • An accounting period or year of assessment can only be considered for inclusion if no references have yet been made to the Valuation Office Agency for any of the valuations which need to be reviewed.

A selective or sample based approach may also be helpful and may be used where you seek initial advice to inform risks or agree a pragmatic approach where there are multiple valuations involved that do not strictly meet the formal criteria above.

If in doubt speak to the Land Portfolio Valuation Unit where any case involves multiple property issues.

If you have a customer or a group of companies which you think will be suitable for inclusion in the scheme for any year of assessment or accounting period your papers should be referred, to the Land Portfolio Valuation Unit:-

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

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(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

  1. Small valuations

The purpose of this section is to avoid wasting the Valuation Office Agency’s time by requesting valuations to be checked where those valuations are in practice likely to be agreed and which are so small that they are unlikely to have any significant tax effect.

It is not possible to provide exhaustive guidance on the possible circumstances in which a land valuation might be used in the computation of a chargeable gain. If, exceptionally, you consider that a valuation which falls within these de minimis limits is, in the particular circumstances of your case, likely to be inaccurate and that it is important that it be considered then it may be referred to the Valuation Office Agency with a covering memo explaining the exceptional circumstances.

You can accept valuations of freehold land at 31 March 1982 without reference to the Valuation Office Agency if the valuation does not exceed the LOWER of:-

  • £15,000, or

  • 10% of the arm’s length disposal proceeds of the land.

This limit should not be used where the interest to be valued is a lease.

The value of a leasehold interest may not increase over time in the same way as the value of a freehold interest. As the lease period comes to an end the value of the lease may decrease rather than increase.

This limit should not be used where the price obtained at the date of sale cannot be relied upon.

For example, if the land is sold to a connected person or in a transaction which is not at arm’s length (see CG14530) the price achieved may not reflect the true value of that property at the date of sale. So there may not be the same relationship with the value at 31 March 1982.

This limit may be inappropriate where you have multiple valuations in view of the cumulative impact of sums involved even though they may be individually below the limits. Here you may consider a selective or sample based approach as set out above.

All valuations at any other date, or of any other interest, regardless of size are to be referred to the Valuation Office Agency.