Stamp Duty Reclaim

kiwiscott

Hi all
I bought my home coming from a broken marriage in which i was in the process of selling but had not sold. Therefore i had to pay the second home STAMP duty. Through various negotiations the vendor offered to meet me half way and pay for half of my STAMP duty. I have subsequently sold my half of the marital home within the three years specified and am in the process of claiming back the  second property STAMP duty that myself and the vendor paid. 
Morally I understand it would be good juju to track down the ex owner of my property and give them half but where do i stand with legal aspect. Talking this through with a colleague and they suspect it could be fraud to claim back the full amount. Is this the case or is it deemed a gift of sorts from the vendor. The way I understood it was HMRC received one single payment for the purchase of the property and don't get involved in part payments if full ownership is going to lie with me... IE if say, your parents said they would pay half of your stamp duty, HMRC wont be getting involved in two part payments, they would expect to be sorted externally and paid in one payment.... 
Am I fraudulent claiming the full amount back? and should I be tracking the ex owner down to pay him back?

allconnected

Just to check - what path did this contribution from the vendor take on its way to HMRC? did they personally write a cheque to HMRC, to you, to your conveyancing solicitor, did they reduce their asking price by an equivalent amount, or what? Because whoever gave you the money, the liability to pay the SDLT is that of the purchaser, not the vendor.

kiwiscott

They transferred the money over to my solicitor and it effectively came from myself as far as HMRC are concerned

allconnected

So they didn’t ‘pay your stamp duty’ - they simply agreed a cash contribution which you used to meet your stamp duty liability.

You paid the stamp duty, you claim it back. What you do then is up to you. If the vendor had any sense they would have made getting it back if subsequently refunded a condition of making the contribution - but whatever was agreed between you and the vendor is of no interest to HMRC.