Stamp Duty Repayment Claim

creditscoremeansnothing

Hi all, i can't find the answer to my question anywhere. Long story cut short...

My Aunt has a large house mortgage free, in October she purchased a bungalow as a cash buyer to use as her main residence. She paid the extra stamp duty as she had a sale proceeding on the house but not completed and as she wanted to secure the bungalow she bought it before completion. The solicitor advised she could;d claim it back within 3 years if she sold her main house. I helped her with everything and we even half completed the relevant form with Hmrc and intended to file it with them after completion which was imminent, and then claim the tax back.

Unfortunately my aunt passed away soon after and a few days before completion. I am the executor of the will and have completed, with the help of a very expensive solicitor, all the inheritance tax forms and paid the tax and i am just waiting for probate which is due any day now, i have had to rush it in order to try and keep the buyer as i can't complete the sale without it. As part of my duties i have claimed tax back on her savings interest and such things but i am not sure if i can claim this stamp duty back on her behalf and then include it in the estate as i have only just remembered about it. I have telephoned Hmrc about it and their exact words were "hmmm i have never heard that one, i don't know" they want me to write in to them to ask which will probably take weeks.

I have had the final bill from the solicitor and it was enormous so i didn't really want to go back to them as the form to fill in is only a few pages long.

davidmcn

I don't know the answer, but you might want to tell us whether or not she had exchanged contracts before her death, as that is sometimes relevant for stamp duty purposes.

You may as well write to HMRC in the meantime as their answer will be more reliable than whatever the anonymous weirdos here tell you.

00ec25

it is such a specific chain of events that it is no wonder the HMRC phone helpdesk was unable to answer as they are generalist staff.

I think you will indeed have to write to them as the written queries are the ones referred to the back room technical specialists who are probably the only ones able to answer. Death between exchange and completion is certainly not covered in the publicly available SDLT guide.

creditscoremeansnothing

Okay then looks like i will have to write to them, may be a while before they reply as it took them 6 weeks to give me an inheritance tax receipt to give probate court. Thanks for your replies and i will post an update.

davidmcn - i think contracts where indeed exchanged.