What a crafty Hunt. I give you the "granny annex tax"

ProDave

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hunt-imposes-granny-annexe-tax-200043553.html

"From June, Mr Hunt said he would abolish Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) – a scheme that has allowed those buying between two and five properties to pay less stamp duty. Homes with an annexe have always counted as two dwellings.

It means those purchasing properties with annexes to look after elderly relatives will no longer benefit from tax relief, incurring double stamp duty land tax bills."

Hoenir

How many properties have four annexes? 

theartfullodger

Gosh, Tories not being complete open & honest! Who'd guessed, eh?

Hoenir

theartfullodger said:

Gosh, Tories not being complete open & honest! Who'd guessed, eh?

Read the budget spiel and there's substantial abuse it seems. Sufficient for the HMRC to want the loop hole shut. 

_Penny_Dreadful

Was it Jeremy Hunt who used MDR when purchasing a block of flats in Southampton a few years ago or am I confusing him with another Tory MP? 

BobT36

It's a little complicated on whether an annexe is classed as a "Dwelling" or not. It's certainly not "always". See these previous judgements: 
https://www.blbsolicitors.co.uk/blog/stamp-duty-multiple-dwellings-relief-a-guide/

I wonder how this change affects FTBs? Again, complicated. 

Can_not_think_of_one

_Penny_Dreadful said:

Was it Jeremy Hunt who used MDR when purchasing a block of flats in Southampton a few years ago or am I confusing him with another Tory MP? 

No, you're not. Confusing him with another Tory MP that is. He bought 7 flats.

horsewithnoname

Hoenir said:

theartfullodger said:

Gosh, Tories not being complete open & honest! Who'd guessed, eh?

Read the budget spiel and there's substantial abuse it seems. Sufficient for the HMRC to want the loop hole shut. 

Except it’s not up to HMRC, they just carry out the legislation that parliament makes.  And generally get blamed for it. 

theartfullodger

BobT36 said:

It's a little complicated on whether an annexe is classed as a "Dwelling" or not. It's certainly not "always". See these previous judgements: 
https://www.blbsolicitors.co.uk/blog/stamp-duty-multiple-dwellings-relief-a-guide/

I wonder how this change affects FTBs? Again, complicated. 

Think that also depends on for what: e.g. MDR or council tax or overcrowding etc etc...

MacPingu1986

Hoenir said:

theartfullodger said:

Gosh, Tories not being complete open & honest! Who'd guessed, eh?

Read the budget spiel and there's substantial abuse it seems. Sufficient for the HMRC to want the loop hole shut. 

What Hoenir said - this isn't a new tax. It's removing an exemption that was being somewhat abused. 

If we want to deploy stamp duty reliefs more effectively it'd be better for these reliefs to help FTBs or those on lower incomes, rather than subsidizing the purchase of larger properties.

BobT36

MacPingu1986 said:

Hoenir said:

theartfullodger said:

Gosh, Tories not being complete open & honest! Who'd guessed, eh?

Read the budget spiel and there's substantial abuse it seems. Sufficient for the HMRC to want the loop hole shut. 

What Hoenir said - this isn't a new tax. It's removing an exemption that was being somewhat abused. 

If we want to deploy stamp duty reliefs more effectively it'd be better for these reliefs to help FTBs or those on lower incomes, rather than subsidizing the purchase of larger properties.

But that's the thing though, so what if a FTB is buying a house with an annexe, that's valued over £425k? Stamp duty is then involved. Do the FTBs then have to pay higher stamp duty because of this? 

Again I guess that depends on whether the annexe is classed as a "dwelling" or not. There's a few case studies on how that's judged on the page I linked above.

I also don't see how closing this loophole has to affect Granny Annexes. Surely those that have their own address / council tax status that are used for AirBnBs and so on, fine, but why just an annexe / extension of an existing home that's only used by the family? 
I get closing the loophole for those buying shedloads of individual properties, but surely that's very different to a normal home with an annexe. Is it just they can't be bothered to separate out the definitions?