stamp duty for family sale

flyingfrog76

Hi

I'd be grateful if someone could help with a stamp duty house buying tax problem. I am planning to buy my mothers home to live in (which she owns outright) for the market value of 320k. With the proceeds, my mother is buying a smaller place to live which costs 190k.

Even though the house is transferring ownership from my mother to me (and my wife) I gather I'll have to pay a large amount of stamp duty (10k). Does anyone have a suggestion for a way to minimise the amount I’ll have to stump up?

I'm buying the place with a mortgage of around 70% and a cash deposit of the other 30% (from savings).

All suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks,

subjecttocontract

If the house purchase includes fixtures & fittings you could pay cash for the value of those (out of your 30%) thereby reducing the purchase price and the SDLT due.

Every £1000 allocated to fixtures & fittings is likely to reduce your SDLT by £30.

Saunas, hot tubs, gym equipment, kitchen appliances, furniture, sheds/ summerhouses/ greenhouses, house contents etc etc.

There seems to be a lot of crap written about not being allowed to reduce SDLT in this way BUT if its genuine and valuations are realistic.....why not ?

Generali

subjecttocontract wrote: »

There seems to be a lot of crap written about not being allowed to reduce SDLT in this way BUT if its genuine and valuations are realistic.....why not ?

That's the key to it. You pay stamp duty on the market value of the house (unless buying from your spouse which is stamp free). You can probably get away with a few % down from the market value if there are fixtures and fittings you can ascribe the value to.

The thing is most of the posts on here about this sort of thing speculate about the possibility of telling the taxman that an old set of weights and a washing machine can be used to make a £350k house 'worth' £250k.