Residential SDLT for Conveyancers - An Advanced Guide with Paul Clark

Introduction

Rates of SDLT on a residential purchase range from complete exemption to 19%. HRAD (Higher Rates on Additional Dwellings and on dwellings purchased by companies) imposes a 5% surcharge; NRS (Non-Resident Surcharge) is a 2% surcharge on the purchase of a dwelling by a non-resident (such as a UK citizen temporarily living abroad, or a Channel Island trust); FTBR (First-time buyer relief) may reduce the rate of tax. Differing rates are payable by human and non-human buyers. And occasionally, SDLT is payable on market value.

Conveyancers are not tax experts, but they are statutorily defined as ‘tax agents’ because they produce documents that are “likely to be relied on by HRMC to determine a client’s tax position”. In addition, registration as a tax agent is to become law in 2026. SDLT liabilities need to be understood at the start of a transaction (as CQS core-practice-management standards require) since the structure of a transaction can alter the SDLT payable.

This advanced in-person course assumes that you already know about the basic SDLT principles covered in the MBL SDLT Foundations course, such as: identifying land transactions; contract and conveyance; bare trusts and settlements; subsales; linked transactions and connection for tax purposes; exchanges; chargeable consideration; exempt transactions; common reliefs; land transaction returns and compliance.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following, including many worked examples:

• Definitions
• Guidance and case law on ‘Residential property’, ‘Dwelling’ and ‘Garden and Grounds’
• Problems with mixed-use (a live issue at present)
• Chargeable Consideration and Reliefs
• Assumption of debt as consideration - transfers of equity
• The interplay between site purchase and construction contracts
• First-time buyer relief - ought to be called ‘first-time owner relief’
• Other reliefs, including those on part-exchanges
• Higher Rates and surcharges
• Companies buying dwellings pay either 17% Higher Rate or 5% HRAD (increased to 19% or 7% HRAD if the company is non-resident)
• The complex and anomalous HRAD rules and exemptions
• HRAD and trusts
• Multiple dwellings and HRAD - even more anomalies
• NRS (non-resident surcharge). Who is non-resident and when is the 2% surcharge imposed?
• Shared Ownership Leases (notes only)