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View the related Tax Guidance about Multiple dwellings relief

SDLT on property disposals by individuals

SDLT on property disposals by individualsStamp duty land tax (SDLT) is generally payable on the purchase or transfer of property or land in the UK where the amount paid is above a certain threshold. If the consideration is over £40,000, the transaction must be notified to HMRC on an SDLT return, even though no SDLT may be due. When it was originally introduced, SDLT applied to all UK land transactions. Devolution has resulted in Scotland and Wales introducing their own regimes.From 1 April 2015, land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) applies to land transactions in Scotland. For details of LBTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA12–AA22 (SSSD, AA[AA351]–SSSD, AA[AA862]). See also the guidance on the Revenue Scotland website. From 1 April 2018, land transaction tax (LTT) applies to land transactions in Wales. For details of LTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA23–AA34 (SSSD, AA[AA901]–SSSD, AA[AA2115]). See also the guidance on the Welsh Revenue Authority website. Whilst the underlying rules applying to LBTT, LTT and SDLT are broadly similar in nature, the taxes are not identical. The rest of this guidance note covers the law which applies to transactions in England and Northern Ireland.Since SDLT is normally paid by the purchaser in the transaction, there are only limited points for the vendor to consider. SDLT is discussed further in the SDLT on property acquisitions by individuals guidance note.Linked transactions and multiple dwellings reliefA request by the purchaser for the vendor to split the disposal into a

Tolley’s monthly tax case tracker

Tolley’s monthly tax case trackerThis tax tracker tool displays the current status and most recent developments of direct tax cases being heard by the Upper Tribunal (UT), the Court of Appeal, the Court of Session, the Supreme Court and the EU Court of Justice as at 6 June 2025. It is updated on a rolling monthly basis.The tracker is split into three parts:•Cases subject to an appeal•Cases potentially subject to an appeal, and•Finalised tax casesRecent updates are shown in bold.Cases subject to an appealThis section of the tracker shows cases that are currently subject to an appeal.Name of parties and citationCurrent statusA D Bly Groundworks and Civil Engineering Limited v HMRCCA/2024/001410; [2024] UKUT 104 (TCC); [2021] UKFTT 445 (TC)Subject: Corporation tax ― provision for pensions liabilities Status: Taxpayers’ appeal to the Court of Appeal scheduled to be heard by 19 September 2025 Background: The taxpayers were lead appellants in a group of appeals by companies who implemented a tax avoidance scheme, notified under DOTAS, to reduce their profits chargeable to corporation tax. The taxpayers implemented an Unfunded Unapproved Retirement Benefit Scheme (UURBS), a contractual arrangement under which they promised to provide pensions to directors and other key employees in the future. The taxpayers set the pensions at 80% or 100% of their estimated profits before tax. The taxpayers made provisions in their accounts in respect of their liability to make pension payments in the future and claimed corresponding corporation

Weekly case highlights ― 11 November 2024

Weekly case highlights ― 11 November 2024These are our brief notes and thoughts on cases published in the last week or so which caught our eye and are likely to be of particular interest to tax practitioners. Full case reports and commentary on most of these cases will be included within our normal reference sources in the coming weeks.Business TaxSyngenta Holdings v HMRCThis is another in the recent line of cases on the unallowable purpose test in the loan relationships regime. The transaction in question was a fairly straightforward intra-group reorganisation where the sale of one company to another group company was funded in part by debt. The question was whether the interest payable on that debt was deductible or whether it was incurred for an unallowable purpose, in which case no deduction would be available. The company incurring the interest obtained no tax benefit itself – the benefit was at group level because the interest deduction was offset against the liabilities of another group company.The decision discloses a vast amount of documentation relating to the project, including internal briefing notes and correspondence with advisers. This shows that from the beginning taxation was a vital element of the reorganisation. Indeed the first documentary evidence of the transaction was on a spreadsheet headed 2010 UK tax projects. Although the directors of the company attempted, when giving evidence, to downplay the importance of tax to the project the tribunal was firmly of the view that this was a tax-driven transaction. Its

Weekly case highlights ― 10 February 2025

Weekly case highlights ― 10 February 2025Business taxLloyd’s Asset Leasing v HMRCThis is a very important case on cross-border group relief. Historically losses of a non-resident member of a group could not be surrendered as group relief to be set against the profits of a UK group company. Following the Marks and Spencer case in 2006 this restriction was held to be discriminatory under EU law. A provision was therefore introduced into UK law to allow losses of an EEA resident member of a group to be set against the profits of a UK member of that group. However, this set-off is only available where all other possibilities of relief have been exhausted in the country of residence of the loss-making company. The UK legislation also incorporates an anti-avoidance test: relief is not available where the loss arises from arrangements which have as their main purpose, or one of their main purposes, to secure an amount which can be surrendered as group relief.The dispute here relates to the decision of the Lloyds Bank Group to cease activities in Ireland following the credit crunch. It had losses running into more than a billion pounds in Ireland and sought to surrender them to more than 100 separate companies in the Lloyds group.The tribunal, in an exhaustive judgement, accepted that the company met the technical conditions for the relief but decided that the anti-avoidance rule applied and thus disallowed the entirety of the loss claim. It accepted, as did HMRC, that there

SDLT on property acquisitions by individuals

SDLT on property acquisitions by individualsIntroductionStamp duty land tax (SDLT) was introduced for land transactions with effect from 1 December 2003. Whereas stamp duty was a tax on documents, SDLT is a tax based on the acquisition of a chargeable interest, whether or not evidenced in writing. When it was originally introduced, SDLT applied to all UK land transactions. Devolution has resulted in Scotland and Wales introducing their own regimes.From 1 April 2015, land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) applies to land transactions in Scotland. For details of LBTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA12–AA22 (SSSD, AA[AA351]–SSSD, AA[AA862]). See also the guidance on the Revenue Scotland website. From 1 April 2018, land transaction tax (LTT) applies to land transactions in Wales. For details of LTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA23–AA34 (SSSD, AA[AA901]–SSSD, AA[AA2115]). See also the guidance on the Welsh Revenue Authority website. Whilst the underlying rules applying to LBTT, LTT and SDLT are broadly similar in nature, the taxes are not identical. The rest of this guidance note covers the law which applies to transactions in England and Northern Ireland only.This guidance note focuses on the rules for transactions where the purchaser is an individual. For details of the SDLT rates that apply to these transactions, see the SDLT on property acquisitions by individuals ― tax rates guidance note.For the rules that apply to companies, see the Stamp duty land tax ― basic rules for companies guidance note.OverviewLand transactions are chargeable to SDLT,

Spring Budget 2024

Spring Budget 2024Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget on 6 March 2024, setting out further proposals to stimulate growth in the economy in advance of a General Election.The key changes / announcements made are summarised below. Detailed analysis will follow in all of our usual sources.Personal taxesAbolition of the remittance basis of taxationUK resident individuals who are not domiciled or deemed domiciled in the UK currently have the choice to pay tax on the remittance basis (meaning UK tax is only paid on foreign income and gains to the extent that these are brought to the UK in the tax year) or the arising basis (meaning UK tax is payable on worldwide income and gains arising in the tax year).From 6 April 2025, the remittance basis of taxation is expected to be abolished. This is to be replaced by a new regime linked to the number of years of UK residency.Individuals will not be taxed in the UK on their foreign income and gains for the first four tax years of UK residency, under a new system called the ‘foreign income and gains’ regime (also known as FIG). They will be free to bring the foreign income and gains arising in those tax years to the UK without suffering a UK tax liability, in a departure from the existing remittance basis rules. They will also not pay tax on non-resident trust distributions. They will not however be entitled to a UK personal allowance or annual exempt amount. From

Stamp duty land tax ― basic rules for companies

Stamp duty land tax ― basic rules for companiesIntroductionStamp duty land tax (SDLT) is generally payable on the purchase or transfer of interests in land and buildings in England and Northern Ireland where the amount paid is above a certain threshold. In addition, most of these transactions must be notified to HMRC on an SDLT return (also known as a land transaction return), even if no tax is due. See the SDLT ― administration guidance note for further commentary on notifiable transactions.From 1 April 2015, land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) applies to land transactions in Scotland. For details of LBTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA12–AA22 (SSSD, AA[AA351]–SSSD, AA[AA851]). See also the guidance on the Revenue Scotland website. From 1 April 2018, land transaction tax (LTT) applies to land transactions in Wales. For details of LTT, see Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes AA23–AA34 (SSSD, AA[AA901] – SSSD, AA[AA2101]. See also the guidance on the Welsh Revenue Authority website. Whilst the underlying rules applying to LBTT, LTT and SDLT are broadly similar in nature, the taxes are not identical. The rest of this guidance note covers the law that applies to transactions in England and Northern Ireland only. This guidance note focuses on the rules for transactions where the purchaser is a company. For details of the SDLT rates that apply to these transactions, see the Stamp duty land tax ― basic rules for companies ― tax rates guidance note.For the rules that apply to individuals,

Weekly case highlights ― 14 April 2025

Weekly case highlights ― 14 April 2025Business taxVaccine Research Limited Partnership and other v HMRCThe case name here may be familiar because there has a been a previous decision relating to this structure. It was set up in a way which was, broadly, designed to produce a tax loss, related to research and development expenditure greater than the amount actually invested by the partners in the partnership. The FTT and UT found that the vast majority of the expenditure was not actually incurred on R&D but was simply part of a circular funding mechanism and therefore reduced the loss to a fraction of what had originally been claimed.This further appeal concerns one element of the structure. On a strict legal analysis the partners were entitled to receive licence fees for the use of the R&D In reality, sums representing these fees were used to pay off indebtedness and the individual partners did not and never expected to receive anything. HMRC argued that nonetheless the fees were taxable income. The taxpayer argued that on a Ramsay approach the whole scheme was a self-cancelling arrangement and therefore it was wrong for HMRC to single out one part of the arrangement ― the licence fees, and treat those as taxable. The FTT agreed. It accepted that it was not usually the taxpayer who argued on Ramsay grounds, but confirmed that Ramsay was a principle of statutory interpretation which applied regardless of which party was advancing it. It is interesting to compare this