Stamp duty question

spirit

On behalf of my sister.

she and my BIL are getting divorced and he is buying her out. He's been told he might be liable to pay SD, yet they already paid it on the original purchase. He already owns half and is just re-mortgaging the other half.

what do you think?

harvey115

If the house is registered on both your sister's and BIL's name then Stamp Duty will not be payable. It will be a simple case of TOE 'Transfer of Equity'.

Of course this is only doable if you BIL can get mortgage on his name alone.

kingstreet

Presumably this is a joint tenancy and they both own 100% of the property, not split as a tenancy in common?

Here's the HMRC guide on married couples separating/divorcing;-

Transferring property on divorce, separation or the end of a civil partnership
SDLT isn't payable if an interest in land or property is transferred to one or other of the couple as part of an agreement or court order because they're:
going through divorce proceedings
taking action to dissolve a civil partnership
This also applies if the partners agree to either:
the annulment of their marriage
a legal separation
In these cases there's no need to notify HMRC of the transfer, even if the value is more than the SDLT threshold.
The position for SDLT is different if joint owners are unmarried and not in a civil partnership when they transfer an interest in land or property from one joint owner to another. In these cases SDLT may be payable.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sdlt/calculate/transfer-ownership.htm#2

If they are not married, different rules apply. See same link.

spirit

thank you kingstreet, yes they jointly own the property rather than tenancy in common.

thank you to harvey too.