The Telegraph has just reported that tenants will be subject to stamp duty because of the elimination of AST
lawyers have raised the issue that tenants on periodic contracts are liable for stamp duty where the cumulative rent is over £125k
God bless the labour government and their hair brained ideas
This is the consequence of idiots ( most of whom are not home owners) who have no understanding of law business or anything else running constituencies and wanting the best for themselves without thinking anything through
Tenants cumulative rent must exceed £125k before SDLT payable, so will be over 10 years before this applies to a tenant on a rental of £1,000 per month.
Likely the government will fix the unintended loophole quite quickly.
"A government spokesman tells The Telegraph: “The department is aware of the potential issue and we are looking at how best to resolve it. It is not an immediate problem for any tenant. No one will be affected until the rent they are paying is worth more than £125,000, which would take the most tenants more than seven years.”
[my bold]
from which I think we can take it that it will not be backdated and the govt has plenty of time to fix this.
It is an unintended consequence of the legislation and as such, even were a tenant to become liable under it, the govt has no plans to actually collect it. If they tried it would very quickly be challenged exactly because it was not the intent of Parliament when passing the legislation and the govt knows that.
well as I said they could try but I think the courts would overturn it very quickly. Retrospective legislation [covering amounts from the past] is even less likely to get through the courts because it is generally seen as contrary to natural justice.
Of course if you believe every scare story the Telegraph comes up with you arent going to believe anything the current government says - that’s your prerogative.