Inheriting house and want to develop the garden

Fruitytotti

Hi, sorry if not the correct area to post, please advise if not...

I will shortly be inheriting a house which has a large garden. i am wanting to do up the house and move in and then sell the rest of the garden.( currently rent another place so will be moving out )

Can i transfer the garden into a limited company before Planning is applied for ? i am looking to sell to then be able to reinvest the money rather than potentially having to pay more tax / IHT if i keep it all in my name.

I am aware i should prob go see an expert but i'm currently looking into recommendations or who i can see.

Thanks in advance

Keep_pedalling

Why do you think you will have to pay more tax if you keep it in your own name? You certainly won’t pay any IHT on it.

user1977

As above, your suggestion doesn't make much sense. Can you talk us through how you arrived at it?

Bookworm105

clearly you are out of your depth 

• where will the Ltd get the cash from to buy the garden or did you intend to give it away for free? (try and think of the implications of that yourself as a freebie will be significant in the future)
• where will the Ltd get the cash from to finance the development costs? (start up company, no history, hardly going to have lenders beating down the door to it. Add in an owner with how much cash in their own name?)
• transferring land before planning permission given will reduce (not eliminate) the CGT you will have to pay personally, but it is a very obvious tax avoidance measure so will need to be carefully structured as a "normal" person selling land does so with an overage clause, which lands you back with personal CGT on land now with permission. 
• yes leaving the eventual sales proceeds in the company will shelter it from personal tax you'd pay if things were in your name, but.... 
• what is your exit strategy for the company?

• will the company be set up as a property developer and therefore all transactions will attract corp tax instead of CGT?

Pay an accountant to advise you in detail on personal tax versus company tax before you waste your time and money dreaming