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Some of Britain’s biggest landlords may owe millions of pounds of taxes on their vast Scottish estates. Around 10,000 landowners are to get letters this week informing them how much shooting on their land is worth. Another 8,000 letters are to go out next year. The Times reports they are will charged up to £1 an acre for the land with potential for deer and bird hunting.


GETTY The Queen is facing a hefty bill

The Queen owns around 70,000 acres in Scotland, Danish millionaire Anders Holch Povlsen owns 220,000 and the Duke of Buccleuch has a staggering 240,000 acres. The land valuation and shooting tax are part of Nicola’s Sturgeon’s “radical” land reforms that came into law last year. Scotland has one of the most concentrated systems of land ownership in the developed world, with just 432 people in control of 50 per cent of the nation’s privately held land. Supporters of the law say it will throw out the “feudal and ache” system, but critics say it is designed to drive out English landlords.

GETTY Nicola Sturgeon brought in the reforms last year


Liberal Democrat Jim Hume described the new tax proposals as part of a "political move targeted at the landed gentry". The law already allows communities the right to buy land without an owners consent. And the Scottish National Party reintroduced sporting rates, which had been abolished in the 1990s. Estates worth less than £15,000 will be exempt from the tax under a small business relief scheme. The largest estates will qualify for a ‘volume discount’, but details of that have not been made public yet.

GETTY Nicola Sturgeon has reintroduced the shooting tax in Scotland

The Scottish government hopes to earn around £4million a year from the tax, which will then be used to boost the Scottish Land Fund. Calum Innes, a partner at Galbraiths property consultancy told The Times: “I think it is unlikely that the government will raise £4 million. “The vast majority of entries on the role are expected to be at a level where it is unlikely that they will pay rates.”

GETTY The Queen owns 70,000 acres in Scotland