Stamp Duty holiday extended!

The much-anticipated confirmation that the stamp duty holiday is to be extended was a welcome announcement in this week’s Budget.

At the 2020 summer economic update, the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) nil rate band was temporarily increased from £125,000 to £500,000 until 31 March 2021.  This week the Chancellor confirmed that the holiday will continue for a further three months until 30 June 2021, meaning homebuyers will pay no stamp duty at all on purchases of residential property in England costing less than £500,000.

To avoid pushing the property cliff edge down the road, an unexpected bonus was that the zero rate band would first drop to £250,000 from 1 July 2021, before returning to its pre-Covid level of £125,000 from 1 October 2021.

Similar measures were also announced from the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA).  Since 1 April 2018, the WRA have been responsible for collecting Land Transaction Tax (LTT), the Welsh version of SDLT. The WRA confirmed that the temporary residential nil rate band of £250,000 will continue until 30 June 2021, but unlike its English counterpart, there will be no transitional measure. Instead the nil rate band will return to its pre-Covid level of £180,000 from 1 July 2021.

Here to help

For any queries on either SDLT or LTT, please contact Tax Director James Clark.  James is a Chartered Tax Advisor and member of the specialist Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group – the leading professional body of stamp taxes advisors in the UK. You can find our contact details here.