308 / 424
OCTOBER 1995
To meet this situation, Section 4 ( 5) The
V AT Act 1972 provides that a
landowner who does not himself engage
in any development work can,
nevertheless, be treated as a taxable
person in certain circumstances. The
most common example of the
application of this provision relates to
the granting of building licences. Under
such an arrangement, a landowner, in
consideration of the payment of a site
fine by a builder, permits the builder to
erect a building on the site and
undertakes to convey an interest in the
site to the builder's nominee (i.e. the
house purchaser).
In those circumstances, the landowner is
regarded as a taxable person and is
accountable for VAT, firstly, on the site
fine, and secondly, on the value of any
interest conveyed to the purchaser.
In addition, if a house purchaser bought
an undeveloped site from a company
and then entered into an agreement with
a related company to build a house on
that site, the original section 4 ( 5)
ensured that V AT was payable on the
disposal of the site.
Between 1972 and 1994, Section 4 ( 5) of
the V AT Act operated successfully to
combat tax avoidance schemes o f this
nature. However, in an Appeal hearing
in 1994, the subsection was found to be
defective. Section 122 of the Finance
Act 1995 revised the wording of section
4 ( 5) to take account of this Appeal
decision. It ensures that the sale of a
site, as part of an overall agreement to
develop it. continues to be taxable. This
is in line with long-standing Revenue
practice in this area. The new wording
of section 4 ( 5) is simply intended to
maintain the status quo obtaining
between 1972 and 1994.
The sale of an undeveloped site is not
affected by this provision and will
continue to be free from VAT unless
disposed of in the precise circumstances
outlined above. Thus, the new provision
will not apply, for example, where a
parent makes a gift of a site to a child,
nor, generally, even where a parent sells
a site to a child. Nor will the new
provision apply where the parties to a
gift are unrelated.
Taxation Committee.
New General Conditions of
Sale ( 1 9 9 5) Edition
At their recent meeting the
Conveyancing Committee considered a
number of applications received from
practitioners seeking the permission of
the Law Society to input the new
General Conditions of Sale in their
entirety on to their WP or computer data
bases for general use by their offices in
conveyancing transactions.
Having considered the matter at length,
the Committee unanimously decided to
recommend that the Law Society should
not grant its consent to such applications
as it considered that the adoption of
such practice would place an
unnecessary additional burden on other
solicitors who would be required to
ensure that the reproduced copies of the
Contract would replicate in all respects
the standard printed General Conditions
of Sale. Furthermore, it was the
unanimous view of the Committee that
the use of the new Form of Contract as
produced by WP ' s would add
significantly to their bulk with little or
no saving in financial costs to
practitioners adopting this practice.
The Committee is satisfied that the
i universal use by the profession of the
new Contract in its standard printed
form will be in the best interests of
practitioners as it will lead to an overall
standardised procedure being adopted by
the profession in conveyancing matters.
The Committee is aware of the existing
widespread practice of the first four
pages of the Contract being placed on
WP data bases. The Committee accepts
the practical benefits of this practice and
approves of the practice provided that
the General Conditions of Sale in their
entirety are appended to the first four
pages of Contract.
In this regard, the Committee
emphatically repeats the
recommendation expressed in clear
terms both in the letter to the profession
from the Chairman on the launch of the
new Contract and also in the explanatory
Memorandum accompanying the new
Contract that the new Form of Contract
in its entirety be used by practitioners.
The Committee requests that in their
own interests practitioners accept and
put into practice the Committee's
recommendation in this matter.
Note:
There is a recommendation within the
marginal note to General Condition 36
that certain matters be dealt with
expressly by Special Condition.
Practitioners are reminded that a
corresponding recommendation extends
to issues arising under any of the
General Conditions, including,
inter
alia,
points of difficulty or doubt on
warranties or compliance or as to the
I existence or nature of conditions referred
to in General Condition 36 itself. In the
latter connection the Committee
considers it important for an intending
Vendor, prior to contract, to put the
prospective Purchaser in possession of
all material information in the spheres of
Planning, Building Control and kindred
legislation, and that any inability to fulfil
the requirements of General Condition
36 be dealt with through the medium of
Special Condition.
Conveyancing Committee
Documen ts Lo st by An Post
| The attention of members is directed to
j the brochure "Registration/
Insurance/Compensation" published by
i An Post.
The registered post system is effectively
| an insurance scheme. The basic
registration fee yields maximum
| compensation of only £20.00. However,
j it is possible to insure post for an amount
higher than the standard registered post
| fee. The compensation paid is directly
1
related to the registration fee.
i Before compensation is paid, An Post
must be satisfied that the loss occurred
I in the post.
However, it should also be noted that
! compensation does not extend to
consequential loss. An Post have
indicated that a claim for registration
I fees incurred in replacing a document
; may succeed, but a claim for
professional fees or loss to the client,
i would not succeed.
Niall G. Casey,
Professional Purposes Committee.
284