Two different things get called a property valuation. A Red Book valuation is a regulated professional product governed by RICS standards. A tax valuation is governed by statute — the open market price test in section 272 TCGA 1992 and section 160 IHTA 1984 — and HMRC's own valuation guidance makes no reference to the Red Book at all.
The statutory test
For capital gains, section 272(1) TCGA 1992 defines market value as "the price which those assets might reasonably be expected to fetch on a sale in the open market". Section 272(2) adds the crucial assumption: no reduction is made on account of the estimate assuming the whole of the assets is placed on the market at one and the same time.
For inheritance tax, section 160 IHTA 1984 is almost identical — "the price which the property might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold in the open market at that time; but that price shall not be assumed to be reduced on the ground that the whole property is to be placed on the market at one and the same time".
That second limb is the one that costs money. It rules out the flooding discount a seller would actually suffer from putting an entire portfolio on the market at once. An executor valuing twelve flats in one block values twelve flats, not a single block sold in one lot at a discount.
For SDLT, section 118 Finance Act 2003 borrows the capital gains definition wholesale — market value is determined as for TCGA purposes. And section 53 supplies the deemed market value rule: where the purchaser is a company and the vendor is connected with it, or consideration includes shares in a company connected with the vendor, the chargeable consideration is taken to be not less than market value at the effective date, plus any rent where the acquisition is the grant of a lease.
Who values it for HMRC
Not, in most cases, a surveyor of the taxpayer's choosing. The Valuation Office Agency is an executive agency of HMRC, and HMRC's inheritance tax manual is explicit: where land is in the UK, HMRC relies on professional advice from the VOA — or the Valuation and Lands Agency in Northern Ireland — and "most land in the UK which is chargeable to tax on the death is referred to the VOA".
District Valuer Services is the specialist property arm of the VOA. Worth noting what its published service list covers and what it does not: strategic asset management, planning and property consultancy, machinery and business asset advice, and energy consultancy. It does not present itself as delivering RICS Red Book compliance, and the VOA's own inheritance tax manual quotes section 160 without referring to RICS standards anywhere.
The practical point for advisers: in an HMRC dispute the argument is about the statutory open market price, not about whether a report followed a professional standard. A Red Book valuation is good evidence of that price. It is not the test.
Getting a valuation checked in advance
HMRC will check a valuation before the return goes in, through the post-transaction valuation check on form CG34, handled by its Shares and Assets Valuations team. It is available to individuals computing capital gains tax and to companies computing corporation tax.
The deadline is the thing to diarise: the completed form must be submitted at least three months before the tax return filing date. If HMRC agrees the valuation it will not challenge its use in the return; if it disagrees, it proposes an alternative for negotiation.
There are referral thresholds that determine where a case goes: £10,000 per item or set for chattels, and £25,000 per item or set for other assets. Fixed plant and machinery disposed of with land, and moveable plant and machinery cases, go to the Valuation Office rather than to Shares and Assets Valuations.
One timing tension worth planning around. The three-month CG34 window does not fit comfortably with the 60-day reporting deadline for a UK residential property disposal. HMRC's position is that you may file an estimated return while awaiting the check and amend later — which is the right approach, but it means the estimate needs to be defensible rather than optimistic. Our guide to reporting capital gains on UK property covers that deadline.
The Red Book, for when a professional valuation is needed
Where a valuation is for financial reporting, lending, or a regulated purpose, the governing standard is RICS Valuation – Global Standards — the Red Book Global — whose current edition took effect on 31 January 2025. RICS describes it as containing mandatory rules, best practice guidance and related commentary for all members.
The 2025 edition renumbered the Valuation Practice Statements, which matters if you are reading a report that cites them:
- VPS 1 — Terms of engagement (unchanged);
- VPS 2 — Bases of value, assumptions and special assumptions (previously VPS 4);
- VPS 3 — Valuation approaches and methods (previously part of VPS 5);
- VPS 4 — Inspections, investigations and records (previously VPS 2);
- VPS 5 — Valuation models (previously part of VPS 5);
- VPS 6 — Valuation reports (previously VPS 3).
A UK national supplement sits alongside it, reissued in January 2025 and effective 1 May 2024, covering the application of the global standards to UK valuations including valuation governance and mandatory rotation for certain regulated purpose valuations.
The Red Book incorporates concepts defined in the International Valuation Standards, published by the IVSC, the current version of which was published on 31 January 2024.
Valuer registration
Worth checking before instructing. The RICS Valuer Registration Scheme is a mandatory regulatory scheme for members undertaking most valuation services, with a risk monitoring and quality assurance programme attached. Members must comply with the Red Book and join the scheme unless they are solely undertaking valuations that fall within the exceptions.
Registered valuers agree to be audited by RICS Regulation, must maintain documented processes and procedures, complete an annual renewal with a fee and a regulatory return, and deregister on ceasing valuation practice. Sponsoring firms must themselves register before sponsoring employees.
So "a chartered surveyor" and "a registered valuer" are not the same claim, and the second is the one that matters for a regulated purpose valuation.
What to commission, and when
Match the product to the purpose. For a transaction, a lender or a set of accounts, instruct a registered valuer working to the Red Book. For a tax computation, what you need is evidence of the statutory open market price at a specific date — and for a probate valuation, evidence that survives the no-flooding-discount assumption.
Where the figure is material and the position is arguable, the CG34 check is cheap insurance, provided the three-month lead time is respected. Where it cannot be, document the basis of the estimate contemporaneously. Our guide to valuing intangible assets covers the equivalent questions for non-property assets.
Acumon advises on valuations for tax and reporting purposes through valuations, property taxes and inheritance tax planning work, with probate support where an estate includes land. If a disposal is material and the valuation is arguable, the CG34 deadline is three months before the filing date — which usually means now rather than later.