This information reflects the Society's web site at the date you downloaded or printed it and you should check at www.lawscot.org.uk to see if it is still current.

Stamp Duty Land Tax

Stamp Taxes Online

Due to essential maintenance, Stamp Taxes Online will be unavailable between 8.00am on Wednesday 20 August and 8.00am on Thursday 21 August.  During this period, commercial software users will still be able to file as normal but may experience delays in receiving response messages. 

SDLT 6 PDF

Following consultation with stakeholders, HMRC have taken the decision to remove the SDLT 6 pdf from their website from Friday 6 June.  Speaking about this decision, Sheila Southwick from Birmingham's Customer Care Team noted that while this may be disappointing for some users, plans to update the website will ultimately make the service more effective and customer focused.

HMRC SDLT Calculator

It has been brought to our attention that the SDLT calculator produces inaccurate results in the following circumstances:

  1. where you are calculating the amount payable for a residential property and you enter a 'zero' into the non-residential box, this will produce an overall amount of 'zero'.
  2. where you enter an amount between 125,001 and 150,000 in the residential box and any amount in the non-residential box and the total figure adds up to £150,000 or less, this will produce an overall amount of 'zero'.

The solution to the first problem is simply to leave the non-residential box blank however the second problem cannot at this stage be overcome.

This has been brought to the attention of HMRC, who have informed us that a new calculator will soon be introduced, incorporating changes from the budget. Since these problems came to light, it has been tested and we have been assured that it does not produce these inaccuracies. They will inform us as soon as the new calculator is made available and in the meantime, they apologise for any inconvenience caused. Do not rely on the results produced by the SDLT Calculator until further notice.

SDLT 60s

HMRC has recently confirmed that SDLT 60s have been abolished for transactions with an effective date on or after budget day (12 March 2008) and no longer need to be sent to the Registers of Scotland.

Withdrawal of Priority Fax Service

For some time now, HMRC has provided a means of dealing with missing UTRNs by advising customers to use the Priority Fax Process. It was introduced originally when an IT fault was discovered, causing many UTRNs to be stuck in the system. This, coupled with manual keying backlogs, meant that they had to offer customers a way of re-presenting SDLT1s without incurring penalties.

As neither of these issues remain a problem, HMRC has decided to withdraw priority fax service from 31 March 2008. To keep up a high level of service for everyone they are asking customers whose returns are not on the system to send either a copy of the original return or a new one to Netherton.

This is only relevant to customers who use paper returns. It is not relevant to customers who file online using the HMRC product or commercial software products.

Online Services Helpline

Further to a meeting between the Society and HMRC, where we communicated the difficulties that many of our members are still facing with online submission of SDLT returns, HMRC has agreed that their online staff require extra training on Scottish issues. This will mean that their online services advisers will better appreciate the implications of service users in Scotland being unable to submit forms within the necessary timescales and will be able to offer a more customised service and respond to difficulties more swiftly.

In the meantime, if members encounter any difficulties when using the Online Services Helpline, you can report this directly to Alison Thomas, Business Director of Stamp Taxes at HMRC, by telephoning 020 7147 2810. Alison will need to know the date and time of the call you made and the name of the helpline adviser you spoke to. She can then listen to the call (as they are all recorded) and identify the areas that are causing specific problems to Scottish service users. HMRC has agreed to offer this service until April. Please use it.

SDLT Helpline

Please email us about your experience with HMRC's SDLT Helpline - good or bad. Actual experiences are more useful than anecdotal comment in our negotiations seeking service improvements.

Budget 2008

  • The current threshold for notification of non-leasehold transactions will be raised from a chargeable consideration of £1,000 to £40,000.
  • Transactions involving leases for a term of seven years or more will only have to be notified where any chargeable consideration other than rent is more than £1,000.
  • It will no longer be necessary to complete either an SDLT return (SDLT 1) or self-certificate (SDLT 60) if the transaction is below the notifiable threshold.
  • The special rule for leases, which charges the premium at 1 per cent where this is below the SDLT threshold if the annual rent exceeds £600, is abolished for residential property, with effect from Budget Day. This will mainly benefit shared ownership purchasers who do not make a market value election.

Please click on the links to the right for further details, including information on the abolition of the "£600 rule" for residential leases and the effect this will have on shared ownership purchasers.

Articles

Revenue admits interest power blunder September 2005

Society's Urgent Advice on SDLT August 2005

SDLT Getting it Right July 2005

Urgent Cases Only March 2005

Personal Presentation February 2004

Official Links

Stamp Office Help Index

News & Latest FAQ's

Stamp Taxes on-line

 




















 

 


SDLT

  • Stamp Duty Land Tax

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