Stamp Duty Threshold Increased to £125,000

MORPH3US

Ian_W wrote:

Speak to your vendor about the offer being £125K for the property + £1K for carpets, curtains F&F.

I thought I read somewhere that extra payments for F&F etc were taken into account now to stop exactly that sort of thing?

Hope i'm wrong but knowing my luck, I doubt I am!!

M

Ian_W

Again AFAIK you can still make extra payments for F&F but not on a large scale as was once the case, opinions on here have been £1K max as HMRC will most likely scutinise anything much over that. Have a word with your solicitor to clarify the position, I'm sure you could make better use of the twelve hundred odd quid when moving than GB can.

MORPH3US

Ian_W wrote:

Again AFAIK you can still make extra payments for F&F but not on a large scale as was once the case, opinions on here have been £1K max as HMRC will most likely scutinise anything much over that. Have a word with your solicitor to clarify the position, I'm sure you could make better use of the twelve hundred odd quid when moving than GB can.

Have just e-mailed the solicitor (theres another £9 on the bill for reading and responding!!!).

Hope she doesn't tell me off for suggesting such a thing! I feel like a naughty school boy who has just asked if I can run round the class naked. I'm waiting for an "how could you suggest such a thing?!?!"

Anyway............

M

MORPH3US

Gutted, just had a reply back from the solicitor that said that stamp duty is also payable on fixtures and fittings and that basically, short of renegotiating the price with the vendor we can't do anything.

Thought about going into EA and asking if we could re-offer £124,500 and then make a payment of £1500 on the side but I imagine the EA would blow that out of the water if it meant them getting less comission!

M

Ian_W

£1K for carpets, curtains

Did you ask about payments for them if vendor is/can be persuaded to include/leave any of them? Probably I did use wrong term - F&F - they're things like light fittings, fitted kitchens etc which peeps used to try to price separately to avoid SD, but I'm fairly sure that carpets, cutains and furnishings can be priced outside the property price for SD purposes.
I do think the cash offer is a dangerous route, tax evasion being akin to fraud whereas tax avoidance is what clever rich people do!

MORPH3US

My exact wording to the solicitor was

"would it prove problematic on our purchase that we had offered £124,500 for the property and £1,500 for the cooker, curtains and carpets"

Her reply is posted above, so looks like we'll have to just pay the stamp duty and grin and bear it!

M

zag2me

Just re-negotiate the price Morph, the seller will probably understand why you are trying.

xela_17

I'm very surprised by the reply from your solicitor Morph. When my friend bought her flat she paid the vendor separately for some furniture (£500). The respective solicitors had no problem with her paying the vendor separately and she definitely did not have to pay stamp duty on the £500.

Lorian

MORPH3US wrote:

When will this change take place anyone?!?!

The notes say midnight tonight. Bad luck. Might be worth talking to the vendor...

zzzLazyDaisy

xela_17 wrote:

I'm very surprised by the reply from your solicitor Morph. When my friend bought her flat she paid the vendor separately for some furniture (£500). The respective solicitors had no problem with her paying the vendor separately and she definitely did not have to pay stamp duty on the £500.

I'm surprised too. It makes no sense. I bought my washer, cooker, and tumble drier from the previous owners, there was no question of stamp duty (but note, they were NOT integrated appliances - they ARE fixtures and can't be separated off).