avoiding stamp duty

kimmy40

we are hoping to buy a flat with office space (to be purchased as seperate transactions but a link buy) .
our mortgage will purely be on the residence and because they are a link buy we would have to pay stamp duty on the whole amount.

our solicitor has suggested we make ourselves a limited company for the office buy and then just pay stamp duty on the residence.

i have no idea how i go about this and do i have to pay any other form of tax in doing so .

thank-you in advance .

John_Pierpoint

Do you want to own a company?
What else would the company do, other than own the office?
What do you intend to do with the office space?

(In my humble opinion the "Condem" government has the right attitude in offering business people a chance to make a 5,000,000 capital gain from selling their business and only pay 10% tax).

kimmy40

the business would only own the office space . there would be no "business" as such .

Pee

How much Stamp Duty would you save? You need to speak to an accountant to go through all the tax advantages and disadvantages. If it's saving £20,000 then that's worth considering. If it is saving £2000 you could easily spend as much as you save/ have more hassle than it's worth.

dboswell

I digress, but in my line of work I come across dozens of millionaires buying and selling multi-million pound properties - resi and commerical through companies - paying very little or no stamp. its really annoying given the average family pays thousands. just dont see why the government cant close this loophole as it must be costing billions given the size of the transactions.

kimmy40

the stamp duty would work out at £4500.
i believe you can set up a business for £100 but dont know what else i would be liable for by going down this route.

John_Pierpoint

If it is just an investment company set up to hold investments the rules are different from those applying to a trading company.

http://www.taxationweb.co.uk/forum/a-private-investment-company-t30900.html