Hotel-owners should consider moving their hotel into their business.
The decline in commercial property values could provide a tax-saving opportunity for some private hotel owners.
This is the advice from the hotels & leisure specialists at Bishop Fleming, the accountancy firm with the widest spread of offices throughout the South West.
New tax changes mean that the region’s many hotel-owners who chose to own their property personally, and arranged to receive rent from their business, now lose out on reduced capital gains tax – and on tax relief for entrepreneurs.
According to Will Hanbury, head of Bishop Fleming’s Hotel & Leisure team: “Transferring the property into the company or partnership, while property values are depressed, will reduce any capital gains tax or stamp duty charges. Any future gains in property value will attract entrepreneur’s tax relief.
“An added benefit is that, by transferring the property into the business or partnership, inheritance tax relief is doubled from 50% to 100%”, said Mr Hanbury.
“In recent years, many of the Westcountry’s hotel owners have chosen to keep the property in their own name. The decline in property values and recent tax changes should prompt those owners to review the potential for substantial tax-savings”, he added.
