• At-a-glance
• Administration Of Tax
• Personal Taxation
• Employment Taxation
• Business Tax
• Capital Allowances
• Corporation Tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• Inheritance
• Savings and Investments
  
• Pensions
  
• Charities
  
• Anti-Avoidance
  
• Stamp Taxes
• Value Added Tax
• Excise Duties
• Miscellaneous

STAMP TAXES

Stamp Duty Land Tax Avoidance

Finance Act 2011 will include three changes to stamp duty land tax to ensure that certain avoidance schemes are ineffective. The changes will apply on or after 24 March 2011. Subject to detailed transitional provisions, the changes will not apply to transactions or arrangements entered into before 24 March 2011 and completed on or after that date. The changes are as follows:

• the exception from the sub-sale rules relating to alternative finance reliefs will be extended to include all such reliefs;
• for the purpose of those reliefs, qualification as a financial institution will no longer be possible just by holding a consumer credit licence; and
• the chargeable consideration for exchanges involving a major interest in land will be the greater of the market value of the interest acquired and what the chargeable consideration would be under the normal rules.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: Bulk Purchases

Legislation is to be introduced in Finance Act 2011 to provide a relief for purchasers of more than one dwelling from the same vendor. Instead of the rate of stamp duty land tax being based on the total consideration, it will be based on the mean consideration, i.e. by the aggregate consideration divided by the number of dwellings (subject to a minimum rate of 1%).