Stamp Duty Questions

flakmunky

Hi,

I am considering buying a new house - the price of which is £265000.

We have been given a 5% discount, bringing it down to £251750. If I can get an additional £1751 reduction the price paid would be under the £250000 threshold for stamp duty.

I need to know whether the stampduty would be calculated on the negotiated price of the house or the asking price... The discount is a staff discount, my wife works for the developers.

Also, if we did negotiate the price to under £250000 and then took a bunch of 'options' would the options become liable to stamp duty? i.e. if the price negotiated was £249999 and then we took £7500 worth of options, the total price paid would be over £250000 so would we then pay the 3% stamp duty?

Many thanks,


fM

guitaruser

Stamp duty is based on final sale price...........that much I do know!.

Sorry cant be more help!

Doozergirl

Stamp Duty is calculated on the price you pay for the house. I have no doubt that the developer will drop the house below the threshold for you - I suspect however that they would do this for anyone buying a house priced at £265,000, I doubt your wife is getting a better deal because she works for them!

I'm not sure whether stamp duty is payable on your options. My instinct says it is NOT as these are fixtures & fittings and they will be itemised too. Check with the developer though.

I think you should try to negotiate the price to £250,000 inclusive of your options - I'm sure they would take this. You may need to start lower to get them to the price you want though. Can your wife find out when sales target deadlines are? You will get the best price just before oneof these if they are short.

We managed to negotiate a newbuild on the market at £299,000 down to £271,000 plus stamp duty paid. Didn't buy it though - they then came back to us after a few weeks and said they would take our opening offer of £250,000!