Finance Act 1931

24 Exemptions

(1) No tax shall be chargeable in respect of any land unit not subject to a lease granted for a term exceeding fifty years which has commenced, for any period during which the unit—

(a) is owned by any Government department or is owned by any public officer or body on behalf of His Majesty for Government purposes, or is owned by trustees in trust for naval, military or air force purposes, or is owned by His Majesty in right of the Crown;

(b) is owned by any local authority or by any drainage board constituted under the [20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 44.] Land Drainage Act, 1930, or to be treated under that Act as having been so constituted or by a body of persons authorised by any special Act or order having the force of an Act, to construct, erect, or maintain as its principal business, any embankment or sea or river wall;

(c) is owned by the National Trust incorporated by the [7 Edw. 7. c. cxxxvi.] National Trust Act, 1907;

(d) is owned by a body of persons authorised by any special Act or order having the force of an Act to construct, erect or carry on as its principal business any railway, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, tramway, gas, electricity, water, or other public undertaking;

(e) is owned by a body of persons carrying on as its principal business the provision of houses for the working classes and prohibited by its constitution or rules from issuing any share or loan capital with interest or dividend at a rate exceeding five per cent. per annum or such higher rate as may for the time being be prescribed by the Treasury as respects that body under the enactments relating to housing or town planning;

(f) is owned by any persons entitled to claim, in respect of the unit or of any part thereof or in respect of the rents or profits of the unit or of any part thereof, exemption from income tax under Schedule A of the Income Tax Act, 1918, by virtue of section thirty-seven or thirty-eight of that Act, or section thirty of the Finance Act, 1921, or allowance in respect of such income tax by virtue of No. VI. of that Schedule;

(g) is owned by a registered friendly society :

Provided that this subsection shall not apply to a land unit which is the site of a building (with its curtilage) divided horizontally the separate divisions of which are owned by different persons.

(2) No tax shall be chargeable in respect of any land unit for any period during which the unit—

(a) is used as a playing field under some agreement with the owner which as originally made or as subsisting at the date of the commencement of this Act could not be determined for a period of at least five years, or if there is evidence that other circumstances render it probable that the land will continue to be so used for a period of one year or more;

(b) is used as a park, garden, or open space which is open to the public as of right;

(c) is used wholly or mainly for the purpose of public religious worship;

(d) is used as a churchyard or burial ground;

(e) is land which is a disused burial ground within the meaning of the [47 & 48 Vict. c. 72.] Disused Burial Grounds Act, 1884, on which no building has been erected:

Provided that, where any land unit which has been exempt from tax by reason of paragraph (a) of this subsection ceases to be so exempt, the tax chargeable in respect of the unit for the first complete year of charge for which the tax becomes chargeable in respect thereof shall be multiplied by five or by the number of complete years of charge during which the unit has been so exempt as aforesaid, whichever is the less.

(3) No tax shall be chargeable in respect of any land unit for any period during which there is neither a person who would be chargeable to the tax in respect thereof nor a person from whom any part of the tax would be recoverable under the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to the recoupment of tax to leaseholders by lessors, except a person who would be entitled to relief from the tax, or from the part so recoverable under the provisions of subsection (1) or (2) of the section of this Act next following.

(4) Where by reason of the foregoing provisions of this section there is exemption from tax for some part only of a year of charge, tax shall be chargeable in a proportionate amount in respect of the other part of the year, and, in relation to the year of charge in which any land unit becomes or ceases to be exempt from tax under the said provisions, this Part of this Act shall have effect as if for references to the person who was the owner or mortgagee of the unit on the first day of January in that year there were therein substituted references to the person who was the owner or mortgagee thereof immediately before or immediately after (as the case may be) the unit became or ceased to be so exempt.

(5) Where any land unit has, at a date as at which it is to be valued or a value is to be apportioned thereto under this Part of this Act, no land value or, in the case of agricultural land, no land value in excess of the cultivation value, no tax shall be chargeable in respect of that unit until the year of charge beginning next after the next subsequent valuation date.