More than one property in europe

fitzwells

I own a property in Belgium and wonder whether buying a flat in the UK can be considered in UK law as possessing one or two properties... In other words since the flat is the only one I possess in the UK can it be considered as my main (and therefore single) residence from the legal point of view?

ACG

Is this from a stamp duty perspective?

davidmcn

For the purposes of the SDLT/LBTT rules about additional dwelling supplements, any residential property anywhere on the planet counts (provided your interest is worth more than £40,000).

horseymchorseface

how will the HMRC know of the second property? apart from filing income from rent overseas potentially

davidmcn

horseymchorseface wrote: »

how will the HMRC know of the second property?

In similar ways to how they may (or may not) know about your second property within the UK. Not every property is registered, not every change of ownership is registered, people use different names, etc.

alex_163163

horseymchorseface wrote: »

how will the HMRC know of the second property? apart from filing income from rent overseas potentially

From everything I've read on this forum, when you purchase a property you have to sign a HMRC declaration to confirm you don't own any other properties (or something similar, please don't quote me if this is the wrong terminology!)
So I guess if you want to fraudulently sign the document you could, but it wouldn't be something I'd be leaning towards doing.

Victor_the_Gink

horseymchorseface wrote: »

how will the HMRC know of the second property? apart from filing income from rent overseas potentially

Tax in this country is based on self assessment. If you don't tell them they won't immediately assume there is dishonesty and attempt to verify.


However, they do have methods of finding these things out, they are focusing heavily on data mining. Particularly if rent is received for overseas property, it becomes quite simple to piece 2 and 2 together.


If you are selected for investigation, and it is clear you have lied, the penalties will be much more severe than if the tax was just paid in the first place. And there is the matter of civic pride that you have paid for a dialysis machine, or something.

fitzwells

This is not from a stamp duty perspective and I certainly don't want to do anything fraudulent. I simply want to know whether, buying my only property in the UK, I am right in saying that this is not a second property, because being British, I want to have a property in the UK, and want to make sure that I have stated the right thing whilst not incurring unnecessary expense (by declaring it as a second property).

davidmcn

fitzwells wrote: »

This is not from a stamp duty perspective and I certainly don't want to do anything fraudulent. I simply want to know whether, buying my only property in the UK, I am right in saying that this is not a second property, because being British, I want to have a property in the UK, and want to make sure that I have stated the right thing whilst not incurring unnecessary expense (by declaring it as a second property).

If not stamp duty then you'll need to tell us what perspective it is from, and why you're declaring it. There isn't a universal definition of "second property", but if the question doesn't qualify it by reference to the country then I think the answer has to be yes it is a second property.

Victor_the_Gink

fitzwells wrote: »

This is not from a stamp duty perspective and I certainly don't want to do anything fraudulent. I simply want to know whether, buying my only property in the UK, I am right in saying that this is not a second property, because being British, I want to have a property in the UK, and want to make sure that I have stated the right thing whilst not incurring unnecessary expense (by declaring it as a second property).

Being British is irrelevant, and it really depends who is asking and what you are trying to achieve - there is no "rule" that states that as this is your first UK property you can designate it number one and go from there. Mortgage providers will have different criteria to Government ISA rules who have different criteria to HMRC for CGT purposes who have different rules to HMRC for SDLT purposes and so on....

movilogo

You can't hide 2nd property ownership if those are in UK (one quick query from land registry will reveal the detail). However, HMRC is unlikely to find out anything about outside UK (unless you are a tycoon and HMRC employees investigators on your case).