Reclaiming Stamp Duty Tax on Second Home

stevepullen

We have a second home which we bought in October 2018 and are currently renting it out. We are aware that if we make it our permanent residence within three years, so, October 2021 we will get the stamp duty back on it as a second home, is this correct? If so, once we sell our main property do we actually need to be physically living in it to get the second property stamp duty back? 

SpiderLegs

No I don’t think that is correct.
I don’t believe simply moving into property 2 would trigger a refund.
Clearly, under your plan you will still own two properties. Would kinda make it a pretty easy loophole to avoid the tax.

To get the refund you would physically need to dispose of property 1, since that was your main residence at the time of the purchase of property 2.

and I’m struggling to see how your ‘main property’ can be anything other than the one you physically live in?

someone more knowledgeable will correct me if I’m wrong.