Can you delay stamp duty payment?

rennes99

The elimination of stamp duty until 30th of June has brought buying a home within reach earlier than expected, as it has for many people.
However as everyone is finding out, the rush in this incentive has caused, has greatly elongated the purchasing process, and also raised prices quite a lot!
I started the process months ago, and because of general passiveness, capacity and  incompetence of conveyancers on both sides (I am renting buying a no-onward chain property only!) and also the stupidly lengthened searches timescales, and everything else it seems,  its looking very unlikely i'm going to complete before the 30th of June which I should really have done. I'm a first time buyer buying a £425k property, so the tapering off until Sept will be of no benefit to me, and i'll be left with a £6k+ bill that i can't really afford, (and REALLY REALLY begrudge paying!!!!) and an inflated priced property, that should have been easy to buy in a matter of weeks.

Firstly, i wonder if something will be announced to help those in my situation?? Surely many many purchases are going to fall through if the cut off applies to those suffering extreme and completely ridiculous delays?! People have bought because not having to pay stamp duty has made it possible!

Secondly, if i do fall foul of the chaos, what are the penalties if i don't pay it on time? I saw somewhere that there is  penalty capped at £300 up to 12 months late? That would be worth paying for me to help with cash flow to be honest!!
Thanks all  

moneysavinghero

The tapering WILL be of benefit to you. You will not pay Stamp Duty on the first £250,000.
No need to begrudge paying an inflated price - you offered that price. You can withdraw your offer at any point before exchange.
If you can afford a £425,000 property than SD is not really the issue you are facing.
Something has been done to help people in your situation. Has been in place well over a year. If you decided to leave it to the last minute then that is your free choice.

Irishpearce26

Some conveyancers may not complete the transaction if you cannot evidence how you will pay the SDLT. You will also be charged a daily interest rate on the tax you owe so it wouldn't be a simple £300 slap on the wrist.

user1977

Irishpearce26 said:

Some conveyancers may not complete the transaction if you cannot evidence how you will pay the SDLT. 

None of them will proceed if there's a mortgage involved, as it's a standard part of the lender's instructions to the solicitor that they're in a position to pay the SDLT at completion.

grumiofoundation

Frankly if you can't 'afford' to pay 6k stamp duty how are you able to afford a 425k property? 

There's a very simple way for you to avoid paying stamp duty - buy a property that costs 300k or less, but since you can afford more than that you are judged to be able to afford to pay the tax. 

As above you are complaining the property is overpriced - but you offered that amount.

Assuming you are buying with a mortgage your solicitor will pay the SDLT for you, believe they/lender will insist on SDLT being paid at completion. 

Are you able to borrow more to cover the upfront cost of SDLT? 

moneysavinghero said:

The tapering WILL be of benefit to you. You will not pay Stamp Duty on the first £250,000.

OP is a FTB so doesn't pay SDLT on the first 300k so taper is of no benefit.

grumiofoundation

rennes99 said:

I started the process months ago....

From your posting history you had an offered rejected end of April? So ~1 month ago. 

So therefore when you offered on this property you knew you had less than 2 months to complete, so why on earth would you not budget to pay SDLT? 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6263204/broker-did-really-well-and-got-us-aip-now-lost-all-property-options#latest 

Justonemorecupoftea

The June stamp duty extension was confirmed in March.
4 months from sale to completion was always going to be a risk you should've budgeted for.
I doubt there will be any help for people in your situation as it is entirely not your own making, the extension was aimed at people who weren't quite going to make the March cut off.
If £6k is going to break you perhaps you shouldn't have stretched yourself so far on your purchase.

MaryNB

grumiofoundation said:

rennes99 said:

I started the process months ago....

From your posting history you had an offered rejected end of April? So ~1 month ago. 

So therefore when you offered on this property you knew you had less than 2 months to complete, so why on earth would you not budget to pay SDLT? 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6263204/broker-did-really-well-and-got-us-aip-now-lost-all-property-options#latest 

Wow, they'd be extremely lucky to complete in 2 months. Even if it was pre-covid without all the solicitors and surveyors being snowed under with work, a 2 month purchase is optimistic and takes a lot of work to push through. 

Scotbot

You don't pay the SDLT your conveyancer does so you can't delay it. The SDLT holiday was annouced last July with a stated end of Mar 2021, this was then extended by 3 months to compensates those who offered last summer and have faced delays. Conveyancing normally takes 3 to 4 months,  those who made offers at the end of 2020 or later expecting to complete before the end of the holiday have missed the boat. 

Justonemorecupoftea

@MaryNB we accepted an offer at the start of May and have still budgeted for not making the September deadline! 2 months is super ambitious!!

LAD917

As others have said, the government has already addressed the situation via the extension to 30 June and then the tapering down until 30 September.  You'll also have to pay stamp duty at completion as a condition of your mortgage.

If you think you are more than a month away, I'd try to:
1) increase the amount you're borrowing, unless you're already at your maximum
2) see if you can find a credit card with a 0% or very low introductory offer, and immediately start putting all expenses there to hoard cash