It has been unveiled that upwards of 120,000 buyers throughout the UK may be owed SDLT refunds if you have made a stamp duty overpayment.
Records show that in the 2017/18 period, a sum of over £12.9 billion in stamp duty was forked out by homebuyers throughout the United Kingdom, with 2016/17 showcasing over 6,800 additional refunds on property to a total of £80m were paid out.
Confusing information by legal advisors over complexity of the tax resulted in overpayments within the 2015/16 period of over £3bn.
Unawares
A recently compiled survey pointed out that around 61% of homebuyers had never considered any form of problem or mistake in the stamp duty paid. 13% of homebuyers felt that they were forced to pay a stamp duty too high due to errors from their solicitors.
Whilst percentage payments bands at higher property values were seen as fairly straightforward, the number of surcharges and exemptions on different homes presented confusion for even the most on the ball solicitor and conveyancer on transactions.
A Complex Issue
Laws around Stamp Duty Land Tax proved to be an extremely complex area for many advisors in helping their clients to properly evaluate the amount they should be paying.
Being trained to purely differentiate between the residential and commercial properties, advisors found themselves unfamiliar with the finer points of the laws evaluation criteria, leading to a mass of unintentional mis-advisement.
How to Check and Reclaim
Due to HMRC guidelines, buyers have a window of 12 months from date of filing to amend any returns including changes resulting in more tax.
Mistakes cannot usually be amended after the 12 month period however the deadline for claiming back overpayments of tax is 4 years from the effective transaction date. So it is possible to claim back overpayments of SDLT from this date.
By talking with your solicitor to discover how much you have paid if you are not aware, you can claim the refund by writing to the Stamp Duty Land Tax Office and quoting the UTRN. You will require a copy of the original SDLT return with your claim along with explaining your thoughts on why you feel you have overpaid.
In this report, you will need to point out which parts of the SDLT is wrong and provide revised figures and confirmation of the amount due to refund. You will need to confirm who should be paid and provide permission for money to be paid to parties other than yourself.
Further Advice from Professionals
For extra up to date advice if you think you’ve made a stamp duty overpayment, you can always talk to estate agents Stockport on the housing market who get up to the minute news and advice on stamp duty and its effects and benefits. Get in touch with Joules Estate Agents today.