Can a buyer pay sellers estate agent and solicitor fees to get around stamp duty?

JimmyTheWig

Hi,

We've had an offer on our house for £250k plus they'll pay all our fees (estate agent fees, solicitor fees, etc).
I presume they are offering like this to get around the stamp duty threshold.

Is that legal? I wouldn't have thought so.
If they are paying fees that we would normally pay, is that really any different to them paying us the money equivalent of those fees?

Should the estate agent be passing on an offer like this without warning?


The offer's too low, anyway, but would be interested if people thought it was illegal or not.


Thanks,

Jim

martinsurrey

they can do what they like but their solicitor wont have any part of trying to submit a stamp duty land tax return with a purchase price of £250k in the above situation as its fraud.

the stamp duty price is the total of the chargable consideration, which includes any fees paid on behalf of the vendor.

so yes illegal, fraud.

simples

G_M

See page 7 of the SDLT guidance notes. You must declare

the total consideration in money or money’s worth given by the purchaser in whatever form for the land or property

See also HMRC guidance here:

What amount is SDLT charged on?
SDLT is charged on the total amount of what's known as 'the chargeable consideration'. The chargeable consideration includes everything of economic value given in exchange for the property - so as well as a payment of money, it can include a release from a debt, the transfer of an existing mortgage, or the provision of other services.

JimmyTheWig

Thanks you two. As I suspected.
I'll let the estate agent know!