Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 Schedule 2 paragraph 17

Sale and leaseback arrangements involving qualifying bodies

Schedule 2 paragraph 17 provides special rules for calculating chargeable consideration in sale-and-leaseback arrangements where a qualifying public or educational body transfers land to a private sector partner, which then leases it back and carries out building works or provides services.

• Where a qualifying body (such as a public body, grant-aided school, or post-16 education body) transfers land to a non-qualifying body and receives a lease or sub-lease back of all or substantially all of that land, special LBTT rules apply to the calculation of chargeable consideration.
• The leaseback itself, any building works carried out, and any services provided by the non-qualifying body are all excluded from the chargeable consideration for the original land transfer and any transfer of surplus land — meaning LBTT is not charged on these elements.
• Similarly, when calculating the chargeable consideration for the leaseback, the original transfer, any transfer of surplus land, and any money paid by the qualifying body for building works or services are all excluded.
• Despite these exclusions from chargeable consideration, they must be disregarded when determining whether the transaction is notifiable — meaning the transaction may still need to be reported to Revenue Scotland even though these amounts reduce the tax payable.

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