Presenter: Paul Clark, SDLT Trainer

Since I last spoke to the SLS, a 2% non-resident surcharge (NRS) on residential SDLT has been introduced. Nationality is irrelevant. We need to know where our buyers have been living recently. Small UK companies one of whose shareholders lives abroad may also be non-resident, as will trusts in the Channel Islands or Isle of Man.

There have been many reported SDLT appeals, mainly on mixed use and on multiple dwellings relief (MDR), both of which are getting more difficult to claim. Indeed, HMRC issued a consultation in late 2021 suggesting the abolition of mixed use and MDR, or at least their substantial revision. That will be the major topic if change happens before November.

Otherwise we will review non-resident surcharge and look at case studies on mixed-use, NRS, HRAD (the 3% surcharge), the 15% ‘higher’ rate and MDR.

About Paul Clark

Paul qualified as a solicitor in 1970 and has been a commercial property lawyer since 1972 – at Linklaters, D J Freeman (where he was head of property for ten years) and since 2003 at the firm now known as Cripps in Tunbridge Wells where he is still a part-time consultant. For the past ten years he has been touring the country training lawyers and accountants in SDLT. He is an active member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group and was a consultant editor of the Law Society’s SDLT Handbook for residential conveyancers by Sean Randall.