Avoiding 3% stamp duty

[Wanderer]

I have heard of ways and means to sell a house worh more than £250K at under £250K and cash balance the remaining money to avoid 3% stamp duty. anyone happen to know more about this out of interest? As only £10K or so over the £250K threshold I do not consider this too cheeky!

It used to be that you could sell the house for £250k + £10k for fixtures and fittings which weren't included in the price.

Indeed, Peter Mandelson did just that on a flat purchase in Notting Hill in circumstances which has been widely reported and questioned. At the time, we were assured that it was "standard practice".

Googling for the details I came across a story saying that HMRC have now taken steps to block people taking the mickey.

If the amount over £250k is relatively small then you may be able to legally come to some arrangement, but if it's 10s of thousands then your buyer is probably going to have to suck it up.

If your solicitor is any good then they should be able to advise you what's possible.

[northernladuk]

Re-opening 4 year threads on legislation that can change a few times a year... useful..

[BrilloPad]

Re-opening 4 year threads on legislation that can change a few times a year... useful..

yes. those who reopen old threads should be banned.

[Lewis]

Googling for the details I came across a story saying that HMRC have now taken steps to block people taking the mickey.

Reading this BBC News - Budget 2012: New stamp duty plans are outlined it says that one trick people use is to set up a limited liability company to buy the property which then sells it immediately to the individual. But it says this is not being clamped down on. That suggests to me that any random contractor with a limited company could do this. I've got no plans to move, and wouldn't do it anyway, but I'd still be interested to know if people are doing this.

It also says that the off-shore company ownership thing has only been clamped down on properties over £2m. So does that mean the loophole still exists for properties <£2m - what sort of pathetic clampdown is that?!