Stamp duty changes

daz said:
At the moment, the consultation considers that if any one of a married couple owns a property, they both own a property for the SDLT2 purpose. I doubt this will change since gifting between spouses is very easy from a tax perspective, so it would nullify the intention of the proposal.
Click to expand...

To be honest my post was only half serious as the amount of faff required is just dull and just accepting 20k ish of stamp duty is going to be painful but l think we just have to realise that it is inevitable. The rent from our flat will recoup the difference in a few years as we have no mortgage on it. It's just a bit initial spend and will just change our LTV as it removes a chunk of our deposit.
 
Forgot about the spousal thing but year that's true. A parent/relative should work though.

Transfers are relatively quick, painless and cheap in the scheme of things and definitely something I'd be considering if it meant a 10k reduction in SDLT
 
Okay. So we are mortgage free, could we transfer it to a relative and then BOTH apply as first time buyers as our combined salary gives us more buying power?
 
Apply however you like it's only when the Land Transaction Return gets completed that it will make a difference and you'll state you 'don't own an interest in any other property' rather than 'own a main residence which isn't being sold' which will make all the difference.

And then delete all our posts on the subject :)
 
That's the best bet. I can't imagine it being a problem although it's unlikely he would advise it as whoever you transfer it to could just decide not to transfer it back!

On the other end of the scale (welcome to Wales :) ) I've just advised someone to renegotiate on a flat from £40,000 down to £39,999 as it should save them £1,200
 
Skillmister said:
That's the best bet. I can't imagine it being a problem although it's unlikely he would advise it as whoever you transfer it to could just decide not to transfer it back!

On the other end of the scale (welcome to Wales :) ) I've just advised someone to renegotiate on a flat from £40,000 down to £39,999 as it should save them £1,200
Click to expand...

Gah! So cheap! :( :(
 
I'm not particularly knowledgeable on this but when I read about it a while back I got the impression that the proposed change is quite harsh in terms of not being allowed much leeway to transition between homes.

So for example if I bought a new home for us to live in but didn't sell our current home on the same day, I'd get stung. I quite like the idea of that as it would mean we could move stuff in less of a rush, not have to rely on a long property chain etc.

Hopefully there will be some sort of processes whereby that scenario can be catered for e.g. a grace period of up to x days within which you have to reduce your total number of houses to 1, if only one house is inhabited at a time (i.e. you cannot rent out one of the homes while waiting to dispose of it).
 
You'd have 18 months to sell your first house in order to obtain a refund on the extra stamp duty. Not sure if that's what you mean?

I thought of a reason a few days ago why there wouldn't be a grace period without paying the extra tax up front but now I can't for the life of me remember it while I sit here studying criminal law :o
 
Can i buy a property in my wife's name yet have us both on mortgage?

Current home is in my name. Rental/BTL flat in both our names. Was wondering if I could take my wife's name off the flat so she wouldn't have a title on any properties, then see if a lender would accept one name on title (hers) but both our names on mortgage? Would want to do this when we buy our forever home otherwise stamp duty at 5% gonna be hefty.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom