HC Deb 22 April 1998 vol 310 cc618-9W
Mr. Lepper

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the forms of monitoring by(a) the Inland Revenue and (b) other agencies of owners' compliance with the undertaking they make in relation to publicity, access and entry under their terms of conditional exemption from inheritance tax on heritage property; when such monitoring last took place in respect of exempt (i) properties and (ii) works of art in (1) East Sussex, (2) West Sussex and (3) Brighton and Hove local authority areas; and in how many cases over each of the last 10 years exemption has been lost or deferred tax charged as a result of breaches brought to light by this monitoring. [36761]

Dawn Primarolo

Owners' compliance with their undertakings relating to tax exempt land and buildings is monitored on behalf of the Inland Revenue by the appropriate heritage advisory agency. As part of this monitoring, owners have to submit annual reports covering public access, publicity and other conditions of exemption; and there are on-site inspections every five years. In addition, the Inland Revenue separately review all cases at five yearly intervals.

Public access and other conditions relating to exempt works of art and chattels are monitored directly by the Inland Revenue. Each case is reviewed every five years and there is an annual selective audit of objects to which public access is only by prior appointment.

Exempt assets situated in East Sussex and West Sussex, which also cover Brighton and Hove local authority areas, were last monitored in 1997.

Conditional exemption may cease to apply due to various reasons including a sale of the exempt asset or a material failure by the owner to comply with the undertakings.

The number of instances in each of the last ten years when assets have ceased to be conditionally exempt from inheritance tax, or its predecessor, capital transfer tax are as follows. However, the reasons for the exemption ceasing to apply in particular cases are not recorded centrally.

Year Number of instances
1988–89 74
1989–90 85
1990–91 69
1991–92 39
1992–93 37
1993–94 65
1994–95 62
1995–96 70
1996–97 83
1997–98 91