Chapter CG64030

Published date12 March 2016
Record NumberCG64030
CourtHM Revenue & Customs
IssuerHM Revenue & Customs

Entrepreneurs’ Relief was renamed in Finance Act 2020 with effect from 6 April 2020. The new name is generally used in this guidance but should be read as applying to times before that date.

In deciding whether a business, or part of it, has been disposed of, the first step is to ascertain what the business is or was.

In the Adcock case Fox J said

“A business connotes an activity”

and, with particular regard to farming,

“A business involves activity by the person conducting it. Mere occupation of land is not enough. The business of mixed farming comprises varied activities and involves the use of many things.”

Both Fox J and Peter Gibson J (in the Atkinson and Dancer cases) quoted from Rowlatt J in Graham v Green (9TC309)

“Really a different conception arises, a conception of a trade or vocation which differs in its nature …. from the individual acts which go to build it up, just as a bundle differs from odd sticks. You may say, I think, without abuse of language, there is something organic about the whole which does not exist in its separate parts.”

The idea of “business” as a bundle of activities indicates that you need to identify the full range of activities comprised within that business. If some business activities continue after the disposal you need to identify all the activities relating to a particular part of the business. For relief to be due, the activities included in the...

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