Stamp Duty Refund Timeline

SJ19

Hi all, 

We're in the process of selling my flat and buying somewhere else but there is a high chance we'll need the complete on the purchase before the sale of my flat goes through. It could be a matter of a couple of weeks but know this will still trigger the higher rate of stamp duty. What I really need to know is: 

1) The realistic timeframe for the refund once we've completed on the sale of my flat. The HMRC site says they aim for 15 days but what seems to be realistic? A month is manageable but if we're waiting for 6 months it becomes a cashflow issue. 

2) Is there a way of avoiding this altogether, other than the obvious complete on the same day which of course was the original target. 

Thanks for any advice. 

Sam 

 

TBG01

Time frame for what? The refund or the sale to complete? Because if it's the latter, how long is a piece of string. 

SJ19

TBG01 said:

Time frame for what? The refund or the sale to complete? Because if it's the latter, how long is a piece of string. 

For the refund, as stated in point 1 of my original post. 

km1500

there is no way of avoiding it if you do not complete before you sell the first property

time scales - it can vary and there's no guarantee when you'll get it to be honest

SDLT_Geek

SJ19 said:

Hi all, 

We're in the process of selling my flat and buying somewhere else but there is a high chance we'll need the complete on the purchase before the sale of my flat goes through. It could be a matter of a couple of weeks but know this will still trigger the higher rate of stamp duty. What I really need to know is: 

1) The realistic timeframe for the refund once we've completed on the sale of my flat. The HMRC site says they aim for 15 days but what seems to be realistic? A month is manageable but if we're waiting for 6 months it becomes a cashflow issue. 

2) Is there a way of avoiding this altogether, other than the obvious complete on the same day which of course was the original target. 

Thanks for any advice. 

Sam 

 

HMRC claim (at a recent meeting of the Working Together Stakeholder Group) to have processed 98% of 3% refund cases within their 15 working day target over the last few months; the process is fairly quick and straightforward.

There is a little "wriggle room" on paying the 3% to HMRC if the sale completes within a few days after the purchase.  See the guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm09805, and the section starting "An exception to this ...".  

This concession is of less use where you have a mortgage, as the conveyancers will have to hold the full amount of SDLT "just in case", but at least it means you get the 3% extra back quicker.

Jonboy_1984

You buy the new flat. You then sell the old property.

You wait 15 days (delay is because the solicitors have 14 days to register the sales and make the stamp duty payment from your buyer with HMRC).

You then submit the refund request (by post unless you have a government gateway account). This takes circa half an hour to prepare (and double check!) if you have all the completion paperwork on the sale and purchase from your solicitor on hand).

HMRC are then supposed to arrange the repayment within 15 days of receiving it unless they decide to investigate it for any reason when all bets are off.

For us (last year) it was around 3 weeks from posting refund request to receiving payment, and was 35 days after the sale of the original property completed.

We could have sped it up very slightly by paying our conveyancer to complete and submit the refund request electronically, but they wanted to bill an hours work for it.