Simon Howley points out that stamp duty land tax anti-avoidance rules can have a wider reach than some property purchasers and their advisers might think.
There is a formidable set of rules now in place that all purchasers who are seeking to avoid stamp duty land tax (SDLT) need to bear in mind. The rules are also just as relevant for those purchasers who are merely seeking to minimise their exposure, and those individuals who are doing something slightly out of the ordinary.
SDLT must be one of the most abused taxes on the statute book, and since its inception in 2003 there has been a plethora of tax avoidance schemes promoted and implemented over the past 15 years: the majority failing. There are a number of hurdles that any planning must straddle when it comes to SDLT, and these can be divided as follows:
- The courts’ purposive interpretation of the tax.
- Statutory anti
