Buying a house and want to save 50% of your stamp duty?

Stamp Duty Land Tax Planning (SDLT) for Property purchased above £500,000

I couldn't keep this a secret - one of my clients is able to save purchasers half the value of their potential stamp duty. 

Lucy from Guildford says 'After doing our research into this it seemed the most sensible idea to save much needed money.  We employed a specialist solicitor who handled all the paperwork for us.    The whole process saved us 50% of our stamp duty which for us was £18,000.  Fantastic!   We can't recommend it highly enough.'

Overview

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is currently paid at the rate of 4% for UK Tax payers purchasing land or property in the UK for a consideration of above £500k and up to a £1m. Inventive Tax Strategies Limited (ITS) can offer UK residential and commercial purchasers the opportunity to reduce their SDLT costs to 2% +VAT. Although the planning works slightly differently, ITS can offer substantial Tax Savings to Clients who are single, a couple, married or a limited company seeking to buy either residential or commercial property whether they are leasehold or freehold.

How can we do this?

We have researched the SDLT market and as a result can offer robust, legal and proven methods of planning. The structure of the saving will depend upon a number of factors which are determined from the second page of the Letter of Instruction “LOI” completed by the client.

Key Points

• NO up front fee
• NO fee at all if the sale does not conclude
• Available on property purchases from £250,000.01 upwards
• A large number of cases successfully processed in the last four years.
• All monies are handled by the conveyancing solicitor in the usual way.
• Where advised by counsel, plans have been submitted to HMRC and acknowledgment has been received.
• Our Tax planning is structured around the in depth advice of leading Tax Counsel, who are retained by us to constantly monitor and update all of our tax planning arrangements, in order to comply with the ever changing and complex tax laws.
• A range of specialist tax plans are available for single, couple, married, multi-name, limited company and SIPP clients seeking to buy either residential, commercial or land property, whether they be leasehold or freehold. We also have the ability to produce bespoke plans for complex cases.

Stamp Duty Land Tax Planning (SDLT) for Property purchased above £500,000 Conveyancing Solicitor

We have an accredited panel of solicitors who are experienced with the tax plans and are also able to act as conveyancing solicitors. We do recommend the use of the panel solicitor for the conveyancing and tax planning as it avoids any delays. We can advise you of their conveyancing costs and put you in contact with the one best suited to your needs.

You can use a conveyancing solicitor of your choice but we need them to complete and sign a Confidentiality Agreement before we can begin proceedings.

Process

The person that introduced you to the Tax Planning will forward you a Letter of Instruction (LOI) along with a Confidentiality Agreement, if you have chosen to use your own conveyancing solicitor.

Once the forms have been completed and signed they will be returned to ITS Ltd for processing.

ITS Ltd will appoint a panel solicitor who may also be acting as your conveyancing solicitor.

The Panel solicitor will communicate with you and your conveyancing solicitor in the normal way and progress to exchange.

The case will progress as normal to completion and the Tax planning shouldn’t hold up the process.

Once completed, an SDLT5 is received within 3 weeks maximum (or instantly if the solicitor uses registration online) by our panel solicitor or your solicitor and the savings are refunded to you and ITS are paid their fees.

There is an option for the solicitor to hold over your rebate and payment of ITS fees in their client account for the full 9 month enquiry period.

Risks

This tax planning is legitimate in both principle and practice. Full disclosure has been made by ITS, but it may nonetheless be challenged by HMRC. Any enquiry will be of a technical nature and will arise via a letter to you and your acting solicitor. Any letter received should immediately be forwarded to ITS for action and we will advise on the response. In the event a challenge by HMRC is successful, the benefit of Counsels’ opinion means that it is very unlikely that any penalties will be levied. The only likely cost over and above the SDLT is an amount of interest at official rates calculated from the due date to the date the SDLT amount is actually paid.

Stamp Duty Land Tax Planning (SDLT) for Property purchased above £500,000 Costs

The fee for processing the tax mitigation is 2% +VAT which is inclusive of all tax planning fees, please note that the only additional charge will be your usual conveyancing charges to your solicitor. There is no up front fee payable and the planning is carried out on a “no win, no fee” basis, which we believe makes it unique in the marketplace.

Example

Mr Fred Jones is purchasing a residential property for £750,000.00. Mr Jones’ SDLT requirement on this at 4% would be £30,000.00. With help from ITS, Mr Jones’ actual cost are reduced to our fees only, £15,000 + VAT (£18000), making Mr Jones a saving of £12,000.

After completion this amount will be sent to Mr Jones from the conveyancing lawyers usually within 2 months.

Insurance

Upon receipt of our fees for each individual case, we pay an insurance premium which will safeguard the clients fee for the duration of the 9 month and 30 day enquiry window. This, together with the Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) which covers any written advice they receive, drastically reduces the risks involved in our planning.

What’s next?

Contact Rebecca Newenham at Get Ahead VA for an instruction letter or call us on 0844 357 8630.

Rebecca@getaheadva.com

www.getaheadva.com