No luck for hobby farmers with sideways loss relief

Scambler v HMRC Farm Tax Brief Volume 32 Number 2, [2016] UK FTT 47, 26 January 2016

The First-Tier Tribunal) had to consider an appeal by Mr and Mrs Scambler, a husband and wife in a dairy farming partnership, who had been denied sideways loss relief for farming losses, against other income and chargeable gains after five years of losses under s.67 Income Tax Act 2007 (ITA). The argument centred on whether the exemption under s.68(3) ITA would apply, on the basis that the loss would have been anticipated by a reasonably competent farmer, at the beginning of the period of losses.