Optimising a claim for land remediation tax relief

Key points

• Land remediation tax relief offers either 50% or 150% relief against qualifying expenditure incurred on brownfield site remediation.
• The taxpayer cannot be the polluter or connected with the polluter.
• It is essential to obtain detailed project records setting out the nature of works undertaken as well as where across the site.
• The contaminated land must not have been in economic use since April 1998.
• Relief cannot include expenditure eligible for capital allowances or that could be expensed as repairs and maintenance.
• HMRC may impose penalties on claims it considers to be abusive or misleading.

Now more than 20 years old land remediation tax relief (LRTR) was initially part of the Finance Act 2001 and introduced to help make brownfield sites more affordable and boost the UK housing supply to or beyond the long-standing government target of 300 000 new homes a year.

The housing...