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    Buying a house – Stamp Duty Land Tax – Your legal duties

    Author: admin
    July 11, 2008

    hand holding twenty pounds notesEven if your purchase is not subject to Stamp Duty Land Tax, a form still has to be filed with HM Revenue & Customs to confirm this. In any case, the form, called a Land Transaction Return Form, must be filed following completion. Your legal duties are as follows;-

    1. It is your duty, and where your solicitor acts for more than one person, your duty jointly and equally, to ensure that the form is submitted to HM Revenue & Customs within a time limit of 30 days. It is usual practice for your solicitor to send the form on your behalf.
    2. There are penalties for failure to submit the form on time (£100 for up to three months delay, thereafter £200 together with tax related penalty if there is a failure to file for twelve months).
    3. If your solicitor completes the form on your behalf and it is usual practice for him to do so, the form is completed on the basis of information provided by you and you are responsible for the accuracy of the form and for any penalty which may be incurred if the form is returned for correction.
    4. Failure to submit the form on time may result in delays in registering the transaction at HM Land Registry, who will not accept the application without an accompanying certificate from HM Revenue & Customs.
    5. You are liable for payment of any tax due and where there is more than one of you, that liability is joint and several.
    6. If your solicitor is named on the form as “tax agent” and it is usual practice for this to be the case then the solicitor is merely the body with whom HM Revenue & Customs will communicate and to whom any correspondence will be sent.
    7. HM Revenue & Customs may enquire into the transaction and you may be liable to pay additional tax after any such enquiry.

    If you want to check whether your property is exempt from Stamp Duty Land Tax, then you can use a free postcode search on HM Revenue & Customs’ website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/so/pcode_search.htm; however, there are still specific requirements for exemption even if you receive a positive result, so don’t rely on this without checking first with your conveyancing solicitor.


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