Capital Transfer Tax (Works of Art) (Hansard, 3 July 1979)

§ Mr. Faulds

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the commissioners of Inland Revenue have accepted that the inclusion of works of art and museum objects in a register available to the public in the national art library in the Victoria and Albert museum, thus enabling the public to arrange to view such objects by appointment, is one of the means by which owners of objects exempted from capital transfer tax may conform with the condition of reasonable access to the public in section 77(2)(b) of the Finance Act 1976; and whether the existence of this potential option will be made clear to recipients of Inland Revenue form 700A, being the undertaking required from applicants for conditional exemption, in view of the fact that the option in question does not appear in that form.

§ Mr. Peter Rees

There are two alternative ways in which the reasonable public access requirements of section 77(2) (b) of the Finance Act 1976 are regarded as having clearly been met:

(a) if the room in which the exempted object is located is open to the public; or
(b) if the object is placed on long-term loan for display by a national collection.

If the person claiming exemption is able to show conclusively that in his or her circumstances neither of these alternatives would be reasonable the Treasury is prepared to consider:

(d) a view by appointment system, with appropriate publicity of the type of object involved and how appointments can be made.

552W

These are not regarded as equal alternatives to (a) and (b) and are considered only in the particular circumstances mentioned above. There are a number of ways in which publicity may be given under (d), where this is agreed to be the appropriate course. One of these is by an entry in a list of exempted objects which may be viewed by appointment which is kept by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The list contains guidance on how to go about making an appointment to view the objects. An important consideration in all casés is that publicity should not be given in such a way as would tend to put at risk the security of the exempted object or the premises in which it is housed. For this reason the name and address of the owner, and the object's location, are not recorded in the museum's list except at the owner's request. The alternative acceptable methods of giving publicity are fully explained to persons seeking exemption who have satisfied the Treasury that in their particular circumstances neither alternative (a) nor (b) would be practicable.