Urgent! Please help MSE test new Stamp Duty tool

wildbri

worked ok for me. I put in £190000 the price of the house across the road

Nil for FTB and 1% = £1900 for not FTB using Fire fox.

bri

bugeyed

You need to make this or the other page a sticky Dan to keep it up to get most testers

littlemissmoney

bugeyed wrote: »

Maybe you could offer to buy the kettle seperately for £1001 if the seller really wants £251,000 thereby saving on tax

This is illegal

MSE_Martin

Just to say thanks for all the feedback - we really appreciate it (dan'll respond soon to some of notes about changing wording)

As for why the calcs needed - well firstly

Most people dont know the thresholds - we could of course tell them and get them to plug it into a calculator - but here we make it easier

Plus the entire guide goes into detail about exactly how it works - again not every knows it

For those who know thresholds, how it works, and are comfortable on caclulators of course its of less use - so we wont force them to use it

Cannon_Fodder

James_N wrote: »

I completely fail to see the need to use this.

James_N wrote: »

We are offering on house...

Is it possible legally to do things like: pay his fees separately, pay for white goods and furniture that would otherwise be taken (e.g I'm not talking about the integral oven, but the freestanding freezers, etc, and the nice sofas), any other separate payment ..... in order to avoid (not evade) payment of the higher stamp duty?

Apparently you needed help a couple of weeks ago, James. You didn't go to the HMRC website and work it out for yourself.

Maybe your maths is stronger than others, just as others' reading and comprehension ability appears to be stronger than yours.

grastgirl

littlemissmoney wrote: »

When you put any amount over £250,000 it says "as you aren't a first time buyer..." even if you have selected that you are.

Same problem here running Firefox 3.6.2, personally I think the explanation about first time buyers needs to be more obvious as it's so stringent.

Cissi

lornalorna01 wrote: »

Cant get it to take the amount ? Trying to enter £350,000

Tried £350,000
Tried £350,000.00

Wont work- Lisa

Lisa, it works fine if you enter the correct numerical format which is 350000
Numbers with a "," in them to mark thousands are not mathematically correct and won't (shouldn't) work in an automatic calculator. I think the comma used in this way is a British convention as I'd never seen it before I moved here (and I'm a scientist by training).

kelou

:beer:works fine here

bugeyed

littlemissmoney wrote: »

This is illegal

Fair enough. £1001 for a kettle would be unacceptable by HMRC

To quote

Fittings and Fixtures

This, of course, raises the vexed question of what's a fixture and what's a fitting. Mr Roy-Chowdhury explains: "It is a rough rule of thumb, but anything moveable is generally not considered to be part of the property, so is not subject to stamp duty.
"If you paid extra for plants in pots, that would be outside stamp duty. If they were in the ground, they would be considered part of the property."
If the amount paid for fixtures and fittings is reasonable and at market price you should be OK, but if the deal is basically a way of escaping the tax and you paid well over the odds, you'll probably get hammered by the revenue.

From this there are certain ways to bring a price down a threshold step so long as the amount is 'reasonable'. My example may have been outside the reasonable realm but the general principle is sound so long as it can be considered a reasonable amount. As light fittings and kitchen appliances are removable and not necessarily part of a sale agreement, if the seller is leaving the kitchen appliances, paying £1000 for these would be acceptable and can be done even if the seller originally intended to leave them anyway - hence this method is legal and can be done still - but within 'reason'

Mokeyjen

Worked ok for me! :T