Paying Vendor's fees / moving costs

ReadingTim

we're paying £2000 for chattels and its being drawn up by a solicitor so all legit

Really? Has the solicitor offered his/her opinion on whether the goods are worth £2k on the 2nd hand market? That's the key, as it's what HMRC will look at to determine whether you're evading tax or not - and this is tax evasion (which isn't legal), rather than tax avoidance (which is).

I suspect the solicitor is simply drawing you up a sale and purchase agreement, which is fine for the purposes of selling a shed (or whatever you're determining as chattels), but won't be of much assistance with HMRC if they decide the items on sale aren't worth £2k, whatever vendor and purchaser have agreed amongst themselves and written down on a sale and purchase agreement.

sunshinetours

Just make sure you do have a detailed inventpry of items and do make sure they qualify to be classed as chattels as its quite restrictive.

If there are lots of appliances and they were of decent make and relatively new (Miele stuff still in warranty for example) you could argue £2k quite easily but you would need proof of this.

As above just ensure YOU are happy with it as HMRC won't be after anyone else in the transaction if there is a problem.

wizzpopp

Done a fair bit of research and as far as I can determine from the HRMC website there's a fair amount of stuff you can declare as chattels.

If we add everything up once we have a full list of entire contents it shouldn't be a problem - I hope! Reading up on it and certainly don't want to do anything dodgy. Will adjust the price to fit the actual list and valuations.

Carpets, light fittings (if not recessed), fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, some cookers, curtains, ladders, door bell (!). Any furniture. There's a big metal storage container in the garden that we want which has no foundations so counts as Chattels I think.

Urrgh this fear of doing something dodgy unintentionally makes the whole process more stressful.

hazyjo

Are the white goods freestanding, or built in appliances? Were any of the things listed above stated on the EA's particulars?

Jx

Ulfar

wizzpopp wrote: »

Carpets, light fittings (if not recessed), fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, some cookers, curtains, ladders, door bell (!). Any furniture. There's a big metal storage container in the garden that we want which has no foundations so counts as Chattels I think.

Don't forget to take into account depreciation, if any of these goods are 5 years or older HMRC will value them at hardly anything.

I would also be surprised if they will include light fittings as these are a fixture and fitting and to have any worth they would need to be solid gold.

Yorkie1

I think you can safely strike the door bell off that list!

Ivana_Tinkle

How much of a disaster would it be to you if you got a letter from HMRC a few months after the purchase and ended up having to pay the extra tax and the fine? If you'd have the savings to cover it then I could understand why you might take a calculated risk - if not then you'd be mad to even think about it!

Unless everything on that list is brand new, you're looking at - what? - £50 for each appliance? I've no idea what second-hand carpets and curtains are worth but I imagine very little. Don't know about the metal storage container but it's not going to get you to £2k! If you're going to go down this route, have a look at the small ads in your local paper and get a realistic price for each item. Make sure that, if you need to, you can justify excatly how you arrived at the £2k figure.

sunshinetours

Some people are overly cautious due to scaremongering. The rules are pretty clear and providing you have a proper paper trail and proof of what you have done (solicitor proabably won't do it unless you have anyway as he would be at risk of being sued )

£2k should be easily achievable as mentioned in previous post IF there are high quality appliances and such being left. Miele washing machines can be £1k plus and still have a significant second hand value at a few years old

wizzpopp

Just to update anyone in a similar situation:

Our solicitor told the vendor's solicitor that we will not be paying for anything unless it has been formally valued. So we're not paying any extra for chattles.

Also for anyone thinking about this, Solicitor's now have a legal duty to report anything like to to HMRC without telling their clients supposedly.

it's been a learning process.... but also who knows if the vendor would have accepted our offer with the estate agent's 'suggestion' of us paying for chattles.....

hazyjo

Good for you Thanks for the update.

Jx