WTTG3700 | Cross border properties

Ordnance Survey data show that the Wales-England border passes through a very small number of residential properties. Residents at these properties may be unsure of their Welsh taxpayer status.

‘Place of residence’ is not defined by the legislation so must be given its ordinary meaning - for an individual its ordinary meaning is the dwelling in which that person habitually lives: in other words his or her home.

Applying the same ordinary meaning in the case of a residential property straddling the border, HMRC interprets taxpayer status as being decided by the side of the border on which the building (or vehicle, vessel or structure) the individual actually inhabits is sited. This will simply decide taxpayer status in the vast majority of cases since, for almost all cross-border residential properties, the border passes through the associated land, gardens or grounds with the inhabited building itself clearly on one side of the border or the other.

In the extremely few cases where the inhabited building actually straddles the border, HMRC will use the geographical classification assigned in Ordnance Survey data to determine which side of the border the building is situated.

It will therefore be a question of fact whether taxpayers in cross-border properties have their “place of residence” or their “main place of residence” in England or Wales and are a Welsh taxpayer or not.