STAMP DUTY LAND TAX FOR ADDITIONAL PROPERTY AS REPLACEMENT OF THE BUYER'S ONLY OR MAIN RESIDENCE

davidmcn

Dogo said:

greatcrested said:

PLEASE DON'T SHOUT....

?

SHOUTING is when you PUT THINGS IN BLOCK CAPITALS:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_caps#Association_with_shouting

Sistergold

Dogo said:

Doozergirl said:

Dogo said:

oldbikebloke said:

READ THE RULES 
in what way have you "acquired" the existing UK property?

We bought in 2008. I have read the rules, I was hoping you could clarify them for me! I cannot understand the sentence in inverted comma in my first post and which is taken from HMRC rules about the Stamp Duty surcharge. What does it mean, really?

The definition of acquire is "buy or obtain (an asset or object) for oneself."  As you bought or obtained that BTL beforehand, you can't be buying or obtaining it now. 

So, considering we bought in the past and that we are selling our main residence to acquire another main residence we should be allowed to live in it temporarily without having to pay the Stamp Duty surcharge

Hello
Yes when I read about it last year when faced with similar situation the conclusion was as long as you replace your main residence within 3years(check this) then you don’t need to pay the higher tax rate. 

It will boil down to your solicitor “seeing the light”(understanding it that way). 

Living in it is not the problem it’s is the time element of 3years which will now convert the buy to let to be classed as main residence for stamp duty purposes.
”So as long as the buy to let was bought as a buy to let and you replace your main residence within three years then the buy to let will not be looked at as your main residence even if you stay in it” if you then stay in the buy to let for 3 years it’s considered main residence if you should then try to buy a house(in the future) which will now be counted as second property “ I hope I make sense?

Xx

AdrianC

Dogo said:

My husband and I live abroad in a property that we own and that  we are going to sell.  We would like to come back to the Uk, where we own a small BTL property. We would  temporarily live in the BTL property (after having sold our property abroad) while looking for a bigger property to buy as our main residence in the Uk. We would then let the smaller flat again. Looking if in a case like ours (sell first, but later) it was possible  to avoid paying the higher rates of stamp duty land tax, I found that there seem to be 5 conditions which must be fulfilled for the "replacement of only or main residence". We would fulfill the first four conditions but the fifth condition is that "At no time on or after the disposal of the sold dwelling has the buyer (or the buyer’s spouse or civil partner) acquired a major interest in any dwelling with the intention of the buyer living in it as the buyer’s only or main residence". Can anyone please explain what that means? Would the fact that we would live in our BTL property mean that we have "acquired a major interest" in it as our only and main residence? Would it be deemed to be our main residence even if we lived in it only for a few months?
Thank you for your help.

I think you're totally confused here, and the various answers you've had haven't helped you a bit. Sistergold seems to be confused with CGT liability.

It's very simple.
You own one property at the start. You are buying an additional property. You will own two properties at the end.
You pay +3% SDLT.
There is no exception to that.

The primary residence thing you're thinking of is if you buy an additional property, then later sell one - if you sold your previous primary residence and the one you bought is the new one, then you pay +3% but get it refunded on the later sale. You own A, buy B - then sell A within 3yrs... But you aren't selling A.

sheramber

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm09810

see example 4?

AdrianC

sheramber said:

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm09810

see example 4?

The OP hasn't sold a previous UK main residence. They are buying an additional UK residence.

Sistergold

AdrianC said:

Dogo said:

My husband and I live abroad in a property that we own and that  we are going to sell.  We would like to come back to the Uk, where we own a small BTL property. We would  temporarily live in the BTL property (after having sold our property abroad) while looking for a bigger property to buy as our main residence in the Uk. We would then let the smaller flat again. Looking if in a case like ours (sell first, but later) it was possible  to avoid paying the higher rates of stamp duty land tax, I found that there seem to be 5 conditions which must be fulfilled for the "replacement of only or main residence". We would fulfill the first four conditions but the fifth condition is that "At no time on or after the disposal of the sold dwelling has the buyer (or the buyer’s spouse or civil partner) acquired a major interest in any dwelling with the intention of the buyer living in it as the buyer’s only or main residence". Can anyone please explain what that means? Would the fact that we would live in our BTL property mean that we have "acquired a major interest" in it as our only and main residence? Would it be deemed to be our main residence even if we lived in it only for a few months?
Thank you for your help.

I think you're totally confused here, and the various answers you've had haven't helped you a bit. Sistergold seems to be confused with CGT liability.

It's very simple.
You own one property at the start. You are buying an additional property. You will own two properties at the end.
You pay +3% SDLT.
There is no exception to that.

The primary residence thing you're thinking of is if you buy an additional property, then later sell one - if you sold your previous primary residence and the one you bought is the new one, then you pay +3% but get it refunded on the later sale. You own A, buy B - then sell A within 3yrs... But you aren't selling A.

You are probably right that I am confused.