Commercial and residential property owners need to be aware that the payment period for Stamp Duty Land Tax has been shortened from 30 days to 14 days. This will apply from 1 March 2019. The change in legislation also included lesser number of questions on the SDLT return.
The measure was supposed to come into effect from tax year 2017/18 when it was announced by George Osborne at the Autumn Budget when he was Chancellor. Due to strong opposition at that time, the measure was subsequently delayed until 2019.
The government claimed that HMRC needed enough time to address issues that arose from the consultation. They received over 85 written responses to the initial consultation in 2016. These mainly came from solicitors who were concerned about the amount of data required in the Stamp Duty Land Tax return wherein the purchase of land involved commercial leases or tenancies.
However, HMRC stated that reducing the amount of information required in the return will help make compliance with the new time limit easier.
HMRC is also looking for a feedback on a proposed schedule of tenancies which would replace the two schedules of tenancies currently in the Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdlt…
The comment period on the draft closes on 23 November 2018.
The draft legislation can be found here:
Draft legislation: Stamp Duty Land Tax Administration (Amendment) Regulations 2018