IR ends light touch property stamp duty collection policy

Jul 19, 2004 1 Replies

Story from BBC NEWS:

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Published: 2004/07/19 12:59:51 GMT


Stamp duty fines regime underway .



Homebuyers who fail to correctly file a stamp duty land tax return 30 days after the sale of a residential or commercial property face a crackdown.



The Inland Revenue has been operating a "light touch" regulation of the tax, introduced last year, allowing some forms to be filed late.



On Monday the Inland Revenue said it will end its "light touch" approach and rigorously enforce a system of fines.



Failure to file a correct return on time will incur an automatic £100 fine.



Treasury coffers



Stamp duty - which fills Treasury coffers to the tune of an estimated £7.6bn a year - was replaced by stamp duty land tax on 1 December.



The change did not mean that homebuyers have to pay more to the taxman as all thresholds and tax levels remained the same.



But from 1 December the onus was on the homebuyer to ensure that a self assessment form - outlining the details of the house sale - is completed and filed with the Inland Revenue within 30 days of completion.



"We hope that the Revenue is going to be flexible," Peter Goodman, head of tax, of accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy said.



"At the moment they are restricting the definition of a reasonable excuse for submitting a form late to really extreme scenarios like the flooding of the post office or the acute illness or death of your adviser," Mr Goodman added.


All that will happen is that solicitor doing the work will ask their clients if they would like for them to complete the paperwork and then charge their clients 100 for the pleasure. The only people who will win here is the solicitors. Great!

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