Stamp Duty

ElSteverino

I have never owned my own property, only rented. I may be buying a property soon, for just under £300K. I may purchase the property outright with my savings/Inheritance.
My girlfriend owns her own property and will have to sell it before joining me in the new property, giving me half the purchase price and having her name put on the Deeds.
Being that she is not a First Time Buyer, but I am, will we have to pay Stamp Duty retrospectively ?
I can't help thinking that HMRC will presume that we are trying to avoid paying Stamp Duty and either charge or fine us.
Do any of the Money Savings Experts on the Forum know where we stand legally ?
Any advice would be appreciated
Many Thanks
[Personal information redacted by Forum Team]

silvercar

Can you edit out the last line of your post please. We avoid personal identifying info on MSE.

silvercar

I’m assuming you are buying in England.

If you are initially buying alone, there would be no SDLT to pay.

If you then do a ‘transfer of equity’ transferring to joint names, your GF is buying half the property from you. The transaction for half the property would be valued at £150k. The first threshold is £125k, so she would have 0% on 125k followed by 2% on 25k. Total £500.

All other things being equal, that’s a smart way of doing it, if you bought together after she had sold, you would pay 2% on everything between 125k and 250k, plus 5% on everything between 250k and your purchase price of 300k. Total £5,000.