When the SDLT supplement is due
When you buy a residential property you may have to pay a 3% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) supplement on the value of the property. The supplement is due if you own, or partly own, two or more homes at the end of the transaction. It doesn’t matter where those homes are situated. A property may be treated as two homes if it comprises a main building and an annex that can be occupied independently, such as a ‘granny flat’.
The SDLT supplement can apply when you buy such a property, even if there is a single set of deeds, and the annex can’t be sold separately from the main building. This problem is being addressed by the Government – the SDLT supplement won’t apply to properties where the annex is worth less than one third of the main property, and it can’t be sold separately. The draft law will be changed as it passes through Parliament this summer.
In the meantime, if you have paid the SDLT supplement on a property which is to replace your main home, you can apply for a refund of SDLT from HMRC.
Properties in Scotland are subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), which also has a 3% supplement for second homes, but the LBTT rules are different to the rules for the SDLT supplement.
