Stamp Duty Refund - Am I too late?

swift1_2

I bought a new house end of October 2020, my current house was gifted to my Son a few days before completing on the new house. As current house was being gifted we did the TR1 forms ourselves and sent them off.  Solicitor insisted we pay stamp duty on new house even though I told them and provided proof current house has been gifted.

I thought I had to wait till Land Registry officially updates the registry into my Son's name before I could claim the Stamp Duty back £18k.  It's now well over a year and I've not received any title docs for my new house and my Son hasn't received any title docs either.

I got confused - as I read at the time you have 3 years to claim stamp duty refund - so I was quite relaxed about things - and I also thought I had to wait for the official registry to be updated i.e. we receive updated title deeds from Land Registry before I could proceed with claiming refund.

I was in for a bit of a rude awakening as doing some googling, turns out I have only 12 months to claim after the date on the TR1 or the 12 months since I bought my new house.

Is it too late or is there some chance I could get this money back - it is quite a lot of money too - £18k!

Would I have any claim on the solicitor for wrongfully making me pay this additional stamp duty when my previous house was gifted to my Son, so no additional Stamp should have been paid.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

canaldumidi

I asssume you are talking about the aditional 3% 2nd property SDLT?

No idea why you paid it if you had Completed on the transfer of 'current property' by the date you bought 'new property'. What were the exact dates of Completion of each transfer?

Not that it matters really - water under the bridge now!

Also no idea where you are getting '12 months' from. You have 3 years from date of Completion of purchase a new main residence to Complete on the sale of previous main residence and reclaim the additional 3%. See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-apply-for-a-repayment-of-the-higher-rates-for-additional-properties

swift1_2

canaldumidi said:

I asssume you are talking about the aditional 3% 2nd property SDLT?

No idea why you paid it if you had Completed on the transfer of 'current property' by the date you bought 'new property'. What were the exact dates of Completion of each transfer?

Not that it matters really - water under the bridge now!

Also no idea where you are getting '12 months' from. You have 3 years from date of Completion of purchase a new main residence to Complete on the sale of previous main residence and reclaim the additional 3%. See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-apply-for-a-repayment-of-the-higher-rates-for-additional-properties

Yes the additional 3% stamp duty on 2nd properties.

Current property transfer date 28th October 2020
New property transfer date 30th October 2020

As I understand it, you have 3 years to sell your previous main residence, once you do, you only have 12 months to claim a refund, which what is says on that link you posted:

Properties sold on or after 29 October 2018

If you sold your previous main residence on 29 October 2018 or later, HMRC must have your request within 12 months of the sale of that previous main residence, or within 12 months of the filing date of the return relating to the new residence, whichever is later.

I should never had to pay the additional stamp but solicitor insisted and I had no choice at the time, I had to complete by the 30th October 2020.

SDLT_Geek

swift1_2 said:

I bought a new house end of October 2020, my current house was gifted to my Son a few days before completing on the new house. As current house was being gifted we did the TR1 forms ourselves and sent them off.  Solicitor insisted we pay stamp duty on new house even though I told them and provided proof current house has been gifted.

I thought I had to wait till Land Registry officially updates the registry into my Son's name before I could claim the Stamp Duty back £18k.  It's now well over a year and I've not received any title docs for my new house and my Son hasn't received any title docs either.

I got confused - as I read at the time you have 3 years to claim stamp duty refund - so I was quite relaxed about things - and I also thought I had to wait for the official registry to be updated i.e. we receive updated title deeds from Land Registry before I could proceed with claiming refund.

I was in for a bit of a rude awakening as doing some googling, turns out I have only 12 months to claim after the date on the TR1 or the 12 months since I bought my new house.

Is it too late or is there some chance I could get this money back - it is quite a lot of money too - £18k!

Would I have any claim on the solicitor for wrongfully making me pay this additional stamp duty when my previous house was gifted to my Son, so no additional Stamp should have been paid.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Joining a few dots here, it does look as if the extra 3% SDLT was not due in the first place.  You are now too late to “amend” your return (12 months) but might well get it back by claiming “overpayment relief” (a four year time limit).

The 12 month time limit you have found is where a refund is due because of a sale (or disposal) of the previous home after the purchase of the new home.  The 12 months there is from the completion of the sale / disposal.

SDLT_Geek

canaldumidi said:

I asssume you are talking about the aditional 3% 2nd property SDLT?

No idea why you paid it if you had Completed on the transfer of 'current property' by the date you bought 'new property'. What were the exact dates of Completion of each transfer?

Not that it matters really - water under the bridge now!

Also no idea where you are getting '12 months' from. You have 3 years from date of Completion of purchase a new main residence to Complete on the sale of previous main residence and reclaim the additional 3%. See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-apply-for-a-repayment-of-the-higher-rates-for-additional-properties

This is helpful.  

There is a time limit of 12 months to put in a refund application in a case where a later sale / disposal of a previous home triggers the right to a refund.

SDLT_Geek

swift1_2 said:

canaldumidi said:

I asssume you are talking about the aditional 3% 2nd property SDLT?

No idea why you paid it if you had Completed on the transfer of 'current property' by the date you bought 'new property'. What were the exact dates of Completion of each transfer?

Not that it matters really - water under the bridge now!

Also no idea where you are getting '12 months' from. You have 3 years from date of Completion of purchase a new main residence to Complete on the sale of previous main residence and reclaim the additional 3%. See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-apply-for-a-repayment-of-the-higher-rates-for-additional-properties

Yes the additional 3% stamp duty on 2nd properties.

Current property transfer date 28th October 2020
New property transfer date 30th October 2020

As I understand it, you have 3 years to sell your previous main residence, once you do, you only have 12 months to claim a refund, which what is says on that link you posted:

Properties sold on or after 29 October 2018

If you sold your previous main residence on 29 October 2018 or later, HMRC must have your request within 12 months of the sale of that previous main residence, or within 12 months of the filing date of the return relating to the new residence, whichever is later.

I should never had to pay the additional stamp but solicitor insisted and I had no choice at the time, I had to complete by the 30th October 2020.

It seems from this that you need to look into overpayment relief.  This is provided for in Finance Act 2003 / Schedule 10 / paragraph 34.  You should quote this in your application.

swift1_2

SDLT_Geek said:

It seems from this that you need to look into overpayment relief.  This is provided for in Finance Act 2003 / Schedule 10 / paragraph 34.  You should quote this in your application.

"overpayment relief" - thankyou for this - I will take a look into this.

saajan_12

I don't think the 3 years is relevant here because its not a return due to a later sold home. You should never have paid the extra 3% SDLT in the first place. For that, in addition to the great suggestion from SDLT_Geek re Overpayment relief, you could also look into amending your original tax return. The deadline was12 months for that which you've missed, but the .gov site says you may be able to contact HMRC directly and explain. 

SDLT_Geek

saajan_12 said:

I don't think the 3 years is relevant here because its not a return due to a later sold home. You should never have paid the extra 3% SDLT in the first place. For that, in addition to the great suggestion from SDLT_Geek re Overpayment relief, you could also look into amending your original tax return. The deadline was12 months for that which you've missed, but the .gov site says you may be able to contact HMRC directly and explain. 

If HMRC get it right, they will say it is too late to amend the return, but refer to the overpayment relief provisions.

SDLT_Geek

swift1_2 said:

SDLT_Geek said:

It seems from this that you need to look into overpayment relief.  This is provided for in Finance Act 2003 / Schedule 10 / paragraph 34.  You should quote this in your application.

"overpayment relief" - thankyou for this - I will take a look into this.

I would be interested to hear how you are getting on with this.