Landowners asked to join capital gains tax legal bid

LANDOWNERS subject to compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) have been invited to support a legal bid to improve their capital gains tax outcome.

Since the abolition of rollover relief in 2002, most of them have been left 25% short of funds to replace farming assets removed by CPOs, according to agricultural consultant Dick Collins, and solicitor and UCC legal academic Professor Brian Carroll.

They have been working for some time to formulate an effective capital gains tax strategy for active farmers and landowners facing CPOs of their land for roads and other infrastructure. They say it is a long-established principle of the statutory CPO compensation code, and enshrined in a December 2001 agreement between the IFA and the government, that landowners be left in a position to fully replace their farming assets with the compensation resulting from a CPO. This was established by the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845, long before capital gains tax was introduced. Carroll and Collins are confident of success for their capital gains tax strategy, and are prepared for a test case in the High Court if necessary. However, to proceed further, they need the support of a substantial number of landowners impacted by each road scheme, in order to influence decision makers, and justify the workload and costs.