Building/Land Sale & CT implication

[Nunners]

Hi,

We are in the process of selling a piece of land which is owned by the limited company my wife and I run/own (50% shareholdings each).

The buiness it relates to was purchase for a price of £270k some 6 years ago, and at that time the building/land was valued at £180k.

We are hopefully looking for a sale of £250k-£300k for residentail development - an offer has been made, we are just waiting for the buyer to confirm they are happy with the permissions etc.

Assuming we sold it for £250k, is it as simple as saying there would be a liability of 250-180=£70k at 18% => £12.6k?

Can anyone confirm whether we can put expenses against this gain, e.g. council tax paid while the building was empty and not operating as a business, legal, agent, architects and planning permissions fees to process the sale, including gaining the planning permission, mortgage interest, and/or anything else?

Also, I've tried reading throught the HMRCs info on Business Relief and Entrepenuer Relief, but can't work out whether we fall within the criteria for any of that? Or are they all CGT related and not corporation tax related

Can we also off-set previous losses against this tax?

Any advice/help would be gratefully received.... I have asked our accountant, but they said they wouldn't help until we had a guaranteed sale - and all I want to work out is where we'd be given a certain sale value!

Many thanks
Nunners

[section 44]

Assuming we sold it

Is "we" you and your wife or the company? Is "it" the land or the company? You and your wife do not own the land. Do you and your wife propose to sell the company or do you propose that the company sells the land?

Did you acquire the company while it owned the land? If so, what was the reason for the acquisition of the company? Why did the company acquire the land?

Can anyone confirm whether we can put expenses against this gain

See above. Would this be a gain realised by you or by the company? Who has incurred these expenses (council tax, hence dwellings rather than business premises)?

[maths]

For more information see other nunners posting.

[Incredulum]

Elsewhere you write:

The land has a building on which was one of our children's nurseries, but due to various reasons, including the building falling apart, it was closed some 3 1/2 years ago... since then it has been vacant.

Assumption: the property belongs to - and has always belonged to - the company, not you as individuals.

The gain is computed by comparing what the company paid for the property and what you get for it. The company is entitled to indexation, and to offset costs associated with improvements to the property - e.g. architect fees - but not council tax etc etc. However, other losses in the company except trading losses can probably be offset. What sort of losses do you have?

[Incredulum]

Oh yes, on the interest point, the answer is "it depends". Have you treated the interest as trading expenses or non-trading expenses?