Stamp Duties
Stamp Duty Land Tax
As previously announced, the SDLT holiday for residential properties with a value up to £175,000 will end on 31 December 2009.
SDLT Avoidance Disclosure
SDLT avoidance schemes are to be disclosed to HMRC on residential property with values over £1,000,000.
This will come in from April 2010 and will follow the same format as the current disclosure requirement for commercial property with values over £5,000,000.
Interestingly these rules will involve a ‘grandfathering’ provision which will exempt current structures from the disclosure requirement. The implication here is that HMRC is happy that it has sufficient details of current schemes to be able to target those that do not work. This implication ties in with recent commentary that HMRC is looking to challenge schemes based on sub-sale relief which have made up a significant part of the SDLT avoidance market.
Structures involving an indefinite deferral of an SDLT trigger should remain as robust planning tools.
