Any legal way of avoiding 3% stamp duty on house just over £250,000?

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Agent told us they had a property coming on the market, valued at £249,950, but owners told them to market higher at £260,000. She's told us £250,000 will be the sticking point for many, but just wondering if there's anyway around the 3% is we offer say £252,000?

it's only payable on the value of the property, so any chattels (curtains / sofas) you buy will not be taxed. £250k for property and £2k for chattels may well raise some eyebrows and serious inspection so you'd better make sure the items you're buying are listed in the contract and the price isn't ludicrous for them.

I would offer £245k in the knowledge the are likely to counter offer. It looks like the vendor has factored in that they wouldn't get asking price anyway so upped the price by 10k. IMO not many properties go for asking price unless you're in London where properties in good areas are more sought after.

Yep, we paid 3k extra to secure the house at 253. It was a probate sale and the agent justified the 3k by a lot of furniture, tools , curtains left behind.

This is ridiculous. They know that no-one is going to pay 3% if they don't have to. Tell them £250 is your bottom line and you will bung them a bit for F&F's.

We sold a house at £250000 and another £4,000 for chattels. As far as I'm aware no questions were asked.

We bought a house that was on the market for £265000 and offered £250000. It was accepted as owner knew they wouldn't get more than that as it was so close to stamp duty threshold. Just offer £250000 or a smidge under.

Thy probably wanted to market higher so they didn't get offers lower than £249950.

We did this with our first house. The couple we were buying from were emigrating so were happy to sell us the fixtures and fittings. We paid £59,950 for the house ( long time ago!) and 2.5k for the furniture , curtains , washing machine, cooker etc. They were even going to leave the cat behind at one point!

If they are adamant that they do want the £260k price, say that you will offer that if they split the stamp duty (1.5% each) - they deduct their share from the sale price. As everyone else has said though, I am sure they are factoring in the threshold and want offers at £250k rather than £235k.

This is a tricky one.

Its unlikely any solicitor will touch the splitting of the SD with a bargepole.

You can itemise things but your solicitor would like to see original receipts if possible. It can be many years before HMRC get round to chasing these things up so I would want 3K to be as watertight as possible to avoid any surprises in the future.

If its a long term home then really the price difference at this level is minimal. Do you love this house enough to pay a few thousand more ?

If they are marketing at £260,000 they aren't expecting to get more than £250,000 surely? If they wanted £260,000 they would have marketed at £270 r £275.

My solicitor would - he suggested it .

Some people are stubborn though. We viewed a house at £525k, again just above stamp duty threshold. Offered £500k knowing there had been an offer of £495K. Turned down our offer. We looked again and found a nicer house and withdrew our offer and bought that house. Owner went back to his first offer and said he would now accept it.... they said was now an offer of £475k....

His estate agent was seriously annoyed too, but he wasn't for listening to reason....

We sold for £500K and took an extra £2K for the garden playframe, a sofa and all curtains. We were able to supply reciepts for all those items (all less than 1 year old) which totalled about £8K and all solictors were fine with this.

OP, a word of warning: when we bought our house the vendors agreed to pay the stamp duty if we met the asking price and our solicitor was fine with it. (We had a small deposit, but could easily make the mortgage payments on the asking price.) The bank, however, weren't at all happy: we didn't tell them about it but our solicitor declared it in the documentation that he completed and sent on to them, and they considered it to be an inducement. They demanded an extra £8k (i.e. the same amount as the stamp duty) by way of deposit. We were incredibly lucky and my parents lent us the money, but if they hadn't then we would have lost the house.

Nobody seems to query paying a few £k more for fixtures and fittings however, so that could be a good bet.

Just in the process of purchasing property that was marketed at 260k, obviously they wanted 250k, no one would pay over. A couple of people offered 250k and we got it as we were proceedable and vendor had found the house they wanted. If they had marketed at 250k people would have offered 240k !

HMRC query paying extra for fixures and fittings all the time, especially for sales just above the stamp duty threshold. You have to be able to show, as neeps did, that the second hand value of the goods is commensurate with what you paid.

Any estate agent that knows their stuff should realise it will sell a lot quicker for that slightly lower figure.

Yep, HMRC do random checks now solely for the reason of stamp duty evasion now.

You would have got away with a few thousand extra for carpets, curtains etc a few years ago, but not any more. Solicitors have to disclose and sales around £250k attract scrutiny for this very reason. Don't risk it.

Thanks for all your comments. We know an offer has already been put in well below the stamp duty threshold (the agent said offer was an insult). Agent told me she valued it at £250,000 and thinks this will be a sticking point for many. We know another couple are interested and they have one to sell, just trying to have a back up plan to be able to offer extra if we have to but without incurring an extra £5,000 tax.

We love the area we live in and this house is one minute away and so us. Also, it gives us the extra room for now, but easy just to live downstairs in old age, so could be a lifetime house. However, we have to be realistic in what we can afford.

HMRC have clamped down on what's reasonable to pay for fittings and contents, be really careful.

Also, if the agent offers you a "Stamp Duty Scheme" don't touch it - they aren't legal (whatever they tell you) and if/when HMRC catch up with you, the fees and fines can be huge, plus you still have to pay the original tax.

Some of the agents around here offer these schemes and I refuse to act in those cases (I'm a property lawyer). Not worth the risk for my clients or me.

They will accept £250. As someone has said they want no less and marketing at that price leaves no room for negotiation. If I wee them I would market at £260 knowing I would have to accept £250.

Just to add, everyone is right. I believe HMRC employed 100+ extra staff last year specifically to deal with stamp duty evasion / loop holes. I know someone personally but used another 'scheme' 3 years ago - all legal, just a loophole. Went through accountants etc, were told if HMRC didnt invetigate within 12 months, everything would be fine.

Roll on 2.5yrs and a letter arrives out of the blue. They had to pay the full amount (think it was in 5% bracket) plus 2.5yrs worth of interest.

Seriously, unless you can genuinely produce receipts for chattels, you cant avoid it. On that vasis, dont offer more than £250k.

I strongly suspect that the additional HMRC staff engaged to close these loopholes are working more on the purchase of multimillion pound properties through overseas investment companies rather than the paymetn of £2k for curtains....

Apparently not, Easter