Stamp Duty

[LyndaCaerau]

Hi Does anyone know if there is anyway around having to pay stamp duty, it can workout such a lot of money?

Some houses are exempt. Google 'stamp duty disadvantaged area relief' to find out if the house you're looking at falls into this category.

Most of the loopholes have been closed. Just one of those costs you have to build into moving.

If the house is just over the stamp duty threshold then the amount over can be allocated to pay for 'movable items' such as carpets, ovens, curtains etc rather than for the house itself thus keeping the house purchase price under the threshold or at a lower rate. The amount for 'moveables' must be appropriate however..

They way the wealthy do it is they only buy properties that are held as the sole asset of company and they buy all the shares in that company rather than the property itself.

Yes, but that loophole has been effectively closed as the stamp duty for properties that are sold as a company was raised to 15%. I think that owners now also have to pay Capital Gain Tax on them when they sell as well.

The stamp duty in disadvantaged areas (actually some quite nice areas in London ) is only up to #150k. I'm afraid that generally unless you purchase at less than #125k, it's just something you have to grit your teeth and accept.

Thanks all, sadly that's what I thought, though happygirl's idea is interesting

Hmm, be very careful with that one. As happygirl said, the money allocated has to be appropriate and there's only so much worth in second-hand carpets, curtains etc. Vendors who try to charge for higher-worth articles such as antique baths and fireplaces could come seriously a cropper as these are invariably seen as fixtures not extras that can be negotiated.

I recently sold a house at £30,000 over the stamp duty threshold. Someone involved in the selling process, who should have known better, approached me with an offer from a buyer that they would give a banker's draft for £31,000 to a kind-of neutral person, they would buy the house for £249,000, then when the neutral person had confirmation from both sides that the sale had completed, the neutral person would hand me the banker's draft. Needless to say, I accepted the offer that was £15,000 over the stampduty threshold and left the buyers to sort out their own stamp duty.
There's no way I would risk it. Surely I would be an accessory.
You just have to suck it up.

Sorry, I did NOT sell the house at £280K. I sold at £265K to honest buyers.