Stamp Duty Land Tax Holiday

(Updated 8 July 2020)

There is a temporary increase to the 0% nil rate band for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on residential property.

From the announcement on the 8 July 2020 until the 31 March 2021 any owner-occupied residential property purchased with a value up to £500,000 will not result in a SDLT charge (unless subject to the 3% surcharge for additional properties as detailed below).  Properties priced below £125,000 have no stamp to pay anyway, and properties worth more than £500,000 will also benefit as only the value above this will incur SDLT at the normal rates.

For investors or companies buying property it appears that this relief will benefit you too.  The underlying SDLT nil rate band doesn’t have any restrictions on it from what we can see so far although the Stamp Duty Land Tax 3% Surcharge will remain.  Therefore, a property worth £500,000 bought for rental purposes would have no “normal” SDLT to pay but there would be £15,000 of Stamp Duty Surcharge to pay.  Effectively this would save you £10,000 compared to the costs that would have been incurred on the 7 July 2020.