Stamp Duty on additional property

MoochyMo

Hi - hoping for some advice on stamp duty rules. I am currently living overseas in a rental property, my home in England is currently rented out. I will move back to the UK in December, and move back into my home for 2 months. I will then buy and move into a new build, and I accept that I will pay 2nd home tax as well as stamp duty on the new build. I will then spend some months getting my first home ready to sell such that I can claim back the 2nd home tax within the 3 year limit. My question/concern is as follows- is there any issue with me only being resident for 2 months in my first home on reclaiming the 2nd home tax? I.e is there a minimum period of time that the first property should be my main residence? I don’t want to make any mistakes as the money will be substantial > 30k.

Emmia

MoochyMo said:

Hi - hoping for some advice on stamp duty rules. I am currently living overseas in a rental property, my home in England is currently rented out. I will move back to the UK in December, and move back into my home for 2 months. I will then buy and move into a new build, and I accept that I will pay 2nd home tax as well as stamp duty on the new build. I will then spend some months getting my first home ready to sell such that I can claim back the 2nd home tax within the 3 year limit. My question/concern is as follows- is there any issue with me only being resident for 2 months in my first home on reclaiming the 2nd home tax? I.e is there a minimum period of time that the first property should be my main residence? I don’t want to make any mistakes as the money will be substantial > 30k.

Are your tenants definitely going to move out in December to let you move in?

silvercar

No problem, as it is based on fact. You should gather evidence for the residency eg registered address for your doctors, work and hmrc, just in case it is requested.

Have you previously lived in this home as your primary residence? If so, when you sell you use the time it was your home plus the last 9 months of ownership in your CGT calculations. Adding another 2 months to that calculation wouldn’t make that much difference. It would have to be. A lot of gain for those 2 months to equate to £30k tax difference. Unless it has never been your home, in which case it would make a difference.

p00hsticks

silvercar said:

Have you previously lived in this home as your primary residence? If so, when you sell you use the time it was your home plus the last 9 months of ownership in your CGT calculations. Adding another 2 months to that calculation wouldn’t make that much difference. It would have to be. A lot of gain for those 2 months to equate to £30k tax difference. Unless it has never been your home, in which case it would make a difference.

I suspect you are at cross-purposes with the £30k reference here - you are referring to CGT on the sale, while the OP is asking about conditions to be able to reclaim the additional SDLT paid on the purchase of the new build when subsequently selling their main residence...