Stamp Duty!!!

katieowl_2

We have just worked out that our possible "downsize" would cost us £8-9K in stamp duty on the kind of property we were thinking of buying :eek:

We've seen a book "How to avoid Stamp Duty" by Russell Eaton costing about £25 :eek:

Has anybody seen a copy of this and know if it is worth buying??? Or failing that any websites that would give us the same info FREE?

Regards

Kate

fivemice

I thought it was only buyers that paid stamp duty, and that it was 1% of the purchase price?

katieowl_2

Yes...it's the duty on the place we want to buy!!!! Anything over £250K is 3%!

fivemice

Oh right I see.
Could you perhaps pick it up from the library? Or use https://www.readitswapit.co.uk

peterg1965

I suspect that book is a few years old now and the loopholes that were used to minimise Stamp Duty may have recently been closed, I could be wrong however! One of the ways of reducing SD is (was) to split up the land and the dwelling thereby creating two sales. In your case, for a property of £250K, the split may be 50:50 which would mean that you would not pay any duty. There are (were) probably other complex ways such as using some form of trusts or splitting ownership, as I said these loopholes may have been closed.

I havent read the book but did see it advertised a few years back. Maybe not having seen it for sale recently confirms my thoughts.

peterg1965

As an aside it really does bring home the cost of downsizing. Add to Stamp Duty; estate agents, other disbursments, removals etc and it adds up to a fair wedge of anyones equity. Particularly if you downsize above £250K, which is a fair likelihood given that the average home now costs more than £200K. This does make you think that the Stamp Duty thresholds are grossly unfair, but I doubt Gordon Brown would view it like that!

fivemice

Peter - if the average home is £200k, and you are downsizing from said average home then it is not really a fair likelihood that it would be above £250k.

katieowl_2

peterg1965 wrote:

I suspect that book is a few years old now and the loopholes that were used to minimise Stamp Duty may have recently been closed, I could be wrong however! One of the ways of reducing SD is (was) to split up the land and the dwelling thereby creating two sales. In your case, for a property of £250K, the split may be 50:50 which would mean that you would not pay any duty. There are (were) probably other complex ways such as using some form of trusts or splitting ownership, as I said these loopholes may have been closed.

I havent read the book but did see it advertised a few years back. Maybe not having seen it for sale recently confirms my thoughts.

We just saw something on the BBC website and if they (Tax office) see the two properties are a package they are classed as a "Linked sale" and therefore charge the full whack.....

We sat down today and worked out out sale and move could cost us £13K :eek: Obviously we would rather put that into our final property!!!

Regards

Kate

katieowl_2

fivemice wrote:

Peter - if the average home is £200k, and you are downsizing from said average home then it is not really a fair likelihood that it would be above £250k.

We've been in our place for 20 years.....it's now a flat (in London) worth well in excess of £300K. Still a flat when all said and done, albeit with freehold, garden and 1000 sq feet.

We were looking at places about £275-£280 K so 3% of that is a sizable amount of change in Gordons Pocket

We could probably find one under £250K where we want to move....funnily enough that suddenly seems very likely :rotfl:

Regards

Kate

ABN

Google is your friend

http://www.taxcafe.co.uk/stampduty.html

everythingblogcast

So stamp duty is include in the price of the house or not? And why should we pay for it after all we get taxed the hell out of us, all of our lifes. GET/VOTE Gordon Brown out he has wasted our money on useless things when other things such as NHS that does not have enough money to get some people the drugs that will save them.