Income Tax Act 2007 section 996

Meaning of "farming" and related expressions

Section 996 defines "farming", "market gardening", "husbandry", "woodlands" and "short rotation coppice" for income tax purposes, and clarifies how these categories relate to each other.

• Farming means occupying land mainly for husbandry purposes, which includes hop growing and the breeding, rearing and grazing of horses — but it does not include market gardening
• Market gardening is defined separately as occupying land as a garden or nursery to grow produce for sale
• Short rotation coppice — a high-density perennial tree crop harvested above ground at intervals of less than 10 years — is treated as husbandry (farming) rather than forestry, and land used for it is not classified as woodlands
• These definitions apply across the Income Tax Acts without any territorial restriction, meaning farming or husbandry activities carried on outside the United Kingdom can also fall within them