I recently had a meeting with a Russian domiciled client looking to make an investment in a UK property structure using funds which were held offshore. I had been invited to this meeting by a large international investment manager who had asked me to attend in order to advise on some possible tax structuring issues and opportunities that his proposals might create.

After a few minutes, I must confess that I was rather surprised to find out that neither the client nor the investment manager had heard of business investment relief (BIR). This could have been a real shame as the proposed investment, like many others, would fall fairly and squarely within the BIR relief.