Stamp duty Advice

Tia_24

My partner and I have had an offer accepted on a house but dont want to complete until the first week in January (as there's so much to pay for between now and when the mortgage starts!). If we've exchange contracts by the end of this year but the completion date is in early 2010, does this mean we will have to pay stamp duty on the property?

Apologies if this is an obvious question but I honestly dont know the answer!

Thanks in advance!

googler

Depends on how much you're paying for the property (the current SD-free band goes to £175k), and whether or not the Govt extends the SD holiday, which may put this figure back down to £125k.....

Tia_24

googler wrote: »

Depends on how much you're paying for the property (the current SD-free band goes to £175k), and whether or not the Govt extends the SD holiday, which may put this figure back down to £125k.....

At the moment the property is excluded from stamp duty as its below £175K but if we've exchanged contracts but we dont complete in 2009 before the stamp duty holiday ends then I wonder if we have to pay?

Graham1979

My solicitor advised that stamp duty is payable based on the rate at the point of completion rather than exchange when I asked something similar recently.

So if the property is valued between £125,001 and £175,000 and you complete in Jan 2010 then you risk being liable for stamp duty IF the govt don't extend the current holiday.

Lunary

This is the situation we are facing too. I haven't seen anything mentioned about the stamp duty being extended. Does anyone know if it is likely, and if so when they would make the decision to extend it?

Cannon_Fodder

Not sure they can afford to extend it, although that will not necessarily stop them...

Likely to be mentioned in the Pre-Budget report in November.