Stamp duty cut from today

mrs_motivated

My daughter exchanged contracts last week and paid stamp duty to the solicitor. She completes on Friday, can she ask for this back?

hatzbarts

Dont get me wrong the tax is what it is and we were expecting to pay it anyway. But why should you not be able to get a relief thats open to others, that could go a long way to helping people in london. I agree there should be a cap but for young professionals who have worked hard to save and afford what is a reasonable property in the capital (in our case without help from the bank of mum and dad), where prices are very inflated, the cap should have been higher. Unless youre looking at starting off in a one bedroom flat, maybe 2 bedroom flat, its not going to help many first time buyers in london.

bobobski

hatzbarts wrote: »

Dont get me wrong the tax is what it is and we were expecting to pay it anyway. But why should you not be able to get a relief thats open to others, that could go a long way to helping people in london. I agree there should be a cap but for young professionals who have worked hard to save and afford what is a reasonable property in the capital (in our case without help from the bank of mum and dad), where prices are very inflated, the cap should have been higher. Unless youre looking at starting off in a one bedroom flat, maybe 2 bedroom flat, its not going to help many first time buyers in london.

It depends what you think the government is trying to incentivise. Perhaps the intention is to help those in non-London in priority to those in London?

MobileSaver

mrs_motivated wrote: »

My daughter exchanged contracts last week and paid stamp duty to the solicitor. She completes on Friday, can she ask for this back?

Yes, assuming she (and her partner if appropriate) are FTBs she will automatically get this back once the solicitor prepares the final Completion statement showing that no SDLT is due. It would be prudent to contact the solicitor and remind them that this is the case.

CheBee

This is great. I wasn't sure if I would be able to tap into it (FTB currently at the conveyancing process)!! :money::beer:

MobileSaver

NickiT wrote: »

It says:
"Married couples & civil partnerships
For the purpose of property ownership, married couples and civil partnerships are seen as one unit. This means that if one person already owns a property, any subsequent residential purchase by either person will be seen as an additional property for both individuals."

Ah sorry, yes, the additional property SDLT legislation specifically referenced property owned by a spouse (presumably to prevent far too easy tax avoidance.)

However, there is no such "spouse" references in the FTB SDLT legislation and so your husband should definitely be classed as a FTB and eligible for the tax relief. Indeed the guidance notes state "This measure is not expected to have an impact on family formation, stability or breakdown."

FTB SDLT eligibility for relief

Filo25

hatzbarts wrote: »

The cap at 500k is a bit gutting. Doesnt go a long way to helping out the first time buyers in London, not very much on the market below that in the areas we're buying, and thats zone 6!

Even in London 500k is very much on the high end of budget for a FTB.

RyanHM

How will this work if you are in a shared Ownership property and looking to buy a ‘full’ property. Do you still class as a first time buyer?

RyanHM

How do you think this will work if you are in a shared Ownership property, looking to buy a ‘full’ property. Do you still class as a first time buyer?

Filo25

AFF8879 wrote: »

Agreed, there's hundreds of 1/2 bed flats under 500k in zones 2-3. Don't look at new builds because they're horribly inflated. I bought in zone 2 last year; 1995-built 1 bed flat for 315k (admittedly have since spent another 15k on refurbishments) - compare that to new builds I was originally looking at 5 minutes down the road, starting at 400k. 400k!! Plus, they were smaller in square footage, less storage space and lumped some kitchen units in the lounge and called it "open plan", yuck.

So yeah, I would think vast majority of FTBs in London spend less than 500k.

Yes I picked up a 3 bed house in zone 4 for under £500k as well, and we were told when looking that we were very much at the high end of budget for FTBs