stamp duty. any legitimate ways to avoid it?

The_White_Horse

seems incredibly steep these days - even the 4% is nasty at a min of £20k

Savvy_Sue

err ... no ...

zygurat789

Don't move house seems a popular way at the moment.

TadleyBaggie

Buy a row of houses for less than £125K each and knock them into one?

Daniel_Elkington

Chattels (UK) Moveables (Scotland) are not part of the cost, so if you have a house worth 500K you could offer £480 for it and another £20K for chattels (light bulbs, free-standing ovens etc.) Anything that is not actually part of the property can be classed as a chattel.

Read here for more info : http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/sdltmanual/SDLTM04010.htm

From HMRC:

"The following items are, however, confirmed as being assets that will normally be regarded as chattels

• carpets (fitted or otherwise)
• curtains and blinds
• free standing furniture
• kitchen white goods
• electric and gas fires (provided that they can be removed by disconnection from the power supply without causing damage to the property)
• light shades and fittings (unless recessed).

On the other hand, the following items will not normally be regarded as chattels

• fitted kitchen units, cupboards and sinks
• agas and wall mounted ovens
• fitted bathroom sanitary ware
• central heating systems
• intruder alarm systems."

Tadley Baggie is possibly incorrect. HMRC may deem that to be a connected transaction and charge SDLT on the full £500,000. You'd really have to buy each one every tax year. Even buying them all now and paying in different tax years wouldn't work as that is called a deferred consideration and would be considered as a single transaction.


The point is, if you are wanting to live in this country and benefit from citizenship then you should pay an appropriate amount of tax. Just because other people are dodging tax isn't justification for doing it yourself.


There are rules which quite plainly tell you how to pay less tax - government incentives as it were - but loopholes should be avoided as they will bite you in the bum. There are enough incentives to be going on with.


For instance if you buy a house that is certified carbon neutral then the SDLT threshold is increased to £500K. Additionally a carbon neutral home will most likely make you money in energy bills etc.


Look around the HMRC website or go an talk to a proper wealth manager (very rare), independent chartered surveyor (not a high street estate agent - quite rare) and/or a specialist accountant who deals with this sort of issue (again - quite rare).

The_White_Horse

paying a massive amount of tax to buy a home to live in is an absolute disgrace and I would do anything legitimate to avoid having to do so. if there is any tax to be paid, it should be the seller to pay on their gain. at least that makes a remote bit of sense, unlike the current situation, which is simply unjustified legal theft.

zygurat789

The_White_Horse wrote: »

paying a massive amount of tax to buy a home to live in is an absolute disgrace and I would do anything legitimate to avoid having to do so. if there is any tax to be paid, it should be the seller to pay on their gain. at least that makes a remote bit of sense, unlike the current situation, which is simply unjustified legal theft.

But it does act to depress house prices and reduce the deficit, both of which are desirable.
There are, of course, schemes around which you have to pay for which are not guaranteed and HMRC and shown a willingness to attack them so you are stuck with it.

ILW

The_White_Horse wrote: »

paying a massive amount of tax to buy a home to live in is an absolute disgrace and I would do anything legitimate to avoid having to do so. if there is any tax to be paid, it should be the seller to pay on their gain. at least that makes a remote bit of sense, unlike the current situation, which is simply unjustified legal theft.

Stay where you are then - Problem solved.

The_White_Horse

ILW wrote: »

Stay where you are then - Problem solved.

can't do that.

The_White_Horse

zygurat789 wrote: »

But it does act to depress house prices and reduce the deficit, both of which are desirable.
There are, of course, schemes around which you have to pay for which are not guaranteed and HMRC and shown a willingness to attack them so you are stuck with it.

but so would charging the seller on their gain. also at least they will have the money to pay the tax more readily. if they bought a house for £50k and sell it for £250k, then they should be taxed on the £200k gain, at say, 5% so pay 10k in tax. they then keep 240k for themselves.

meanwhile, someone who bought the house in 2007 for 280k and is selling now for £260k pays no tax as they made no gain.

much fairer.

I have no objection to stamp duty on BTL properties or second homes. It should just not apply to a main residence.

ILW

The_White_Horse wrote: »

can't do that.

OK - just drop the price to below the SD level.