The Government has begun a consultation process to consider granting special stamp duty concessions on the bulk buying of residential property.
At present if a buyer purchases a number of properties at the same time then potentially they will be classed as “linked transactions”. As a result stamp duty would be payable on the total amount paid rather than treating each purchase individually and this can increase the tax bill hugely. For example stamp duty for a one off purchase at £200,000 would be payable at 1%.However in circumstances where 3 properties of that value were acquired at the same time and are linked the stamp duty would be due on the aggregate amount of £600,000 at the higher rate of 4%. In this example the buyer under the new proposals would have a total tax liability of £6,000 instead of £24,000 at present. The change is to encourage investors to become professional landlords.
Until these changes come about please contact Steve Petty to ensure that stamp duty land tax is kept to a minimum on all property transactions.
Steve Petty
Commercial Property Solicitor
01926 629 005
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