Stamp Duty avoidance

stator

Love it. :beer:
Hope HMRC catch them all :A

System

An important point to remember is that very recently HMRC closed one of the loopholes and when it did so it backdated when this change began from. So people that had used these schemes at times the loopholes were there were left not only with the full SDLT bill but also lost out on the fee.

Osbourne clearly stated his intention on this. These schemes do go into ridiculous teritory and HMRC will not hesitate to take retrospective action.

DTDfanBoy

simongover wrote: »

4 year fully insured policy to cover the HMRC compliance window ( maximum period allowed for HMRC to make a random compliance ) which would refund the £6,800

Best of luck claiming on that policy :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

libf

Tax avoidance isn't as morally bankrupt as tax evading, but it's not far from the line.

JasonLVC

The insurance policy simply covers the fees of any accountant or lawyer that you engage to deal with the tax inspection that will eventually happen.

So if you are found owing say £20k SDLT because the scheme doesn't work (and it will not work), then the insurance doesn't pay you £20k, it just covers cost of getting in a specialist liaise with HMRC and try and help you avoid a deliberate avoidance penalty of 100%. A tax specialist could easily charge £300+ per hour and unpicking an SDLT scheme may take 2-3 days so several thousand pound of fees, that is the only thing you save.

Any penalties for avoiding SDLT (which can be upto 100% of the SDLT avoided) is also not covered by the insurance. It may also refund you the originl fee you paid for setting up the scheme but is cold comfort when you end up owing £20k plus £20k penalties.

JasonLVC

Why would the charge you for a barristers tax opinion? These QC's are expensive but the way this usually works is the tax scheme seeks a single opinion from a QC to get the "okay" that the scheme works.

Its rare that a QC opinion is sought for each and every individual, the QC will give a general opinion and at the end of the day, will just be their opinion (and their opinion is usually based upon a mixture of the law and what outcome you want to achieve). So unless you get a personalised opinion on the precise facts of your own situation, don't see why you should pay for a generic opinion that may not fit your situation.

Surrey_EA

Blimey, are these things still around?

Keep well away would be my advice.

JasonLVC

OP you don't explain what the scheme is, but SDLT avoidance usually falls under what we call "Blackfriar type schemes", which exploit sub-sale rules and hybrids exploit Sharia law exemptions (ie, sale and leaseback rules where Islamic buyers cannot pay interest on mortgages and so arrange Sharia finance to "pay rent" instead).

The transfer of rights rules exist to prevent a double tax where A sells land to B but, prior to completion of that deal, there is a sub-sale or assignment which results in another party, C, becoming entitled to acquire the land at completion.

So this is why the scheme usually involves the acquisition of the property going through another vehicle/person first.

HMRC have increased their activity in reviewing land trasnactions 4-fold since 2013, that means HMRC are trawling Land Registry to look for high value transactions involving back to back movements of property.


Do it by all means, but there is high risks involved in terms of 100% penalties based on the tax avoided, I bet the salesman never mentioned that!

jimpix12

Also worth stating their insurance normally covers their fee - not the SDLT. So you only get the fee refunded if/when HMRC come knocking.

I'm afraid you're 3-4 years too late in trying this. The ship has sailed.

simongover

Wow thanks everyone for your advice. I appreciate you all taking the time

In between posting and reading all these replies I too investigated Fiducia and found them to be only registered in 2014 (my suspicions were raised in a later email claiming to have had 8 years experience with these Stamp Duty avoidance techniques)...

There were plenty of red flags for me and so I've decided to abandon the idea of stamp duty avoidance and reluctantly hand the tax over...