Land Transaction Return Bill?

tamara_d

Hi All

Can anyone help me understand this letter from HMRC. We have bought a new house around 2 months ago and today received a letter in the post to say that my partner owes £380 as HMRC have just received our Land Transaction Return and the tax liability is £380. I have no idea what this is and was not informed of any extra bill by my conveyancer nor have we had this before in previous purchases.

Any help would be much appreciated.

ToeDipper

Presumably what they're saying is that stamp duty land tax (SDLT) hasn't been paid on your house purchase yet. This is usually dealt with by the buyer's solicitors - they will compete the land transaction return (telling HMRC how much SDLT is due), collect the funds from you by including it in the completion statement, and then pay the SDLT over to HMRC within the time limits.

However, it is possible do deal with SDLT yourself, so the first steps are to check your solicitor's letter of engagement (to find out whether it was supposed to be included in their service to you) and the completion statement (to check whether you gave them the cash for the SDLT).

Once you've confirmed that the solicitor was responsible, get in touch with them to ask for proof that they paid the correct amount of SDLT to HMRC on time. If they didn't, I'd settle the bill with HMRC myself (at least then you know it's done) and then make a complaint to the solicitors, asking them to return the funds you gave them to pay SDLT, reimburse you for any late penalties incurred, and refund you any fees they charged you for paying SDLT in their bill for the purchase.