SDLT and the Crunch

Patrick Cannon looks at how the credit crunch is giving rise to SDLT charges and how these can be mitigated

Due to the credit crunch an increasing number of property investors are being forced to transfer their properties just at a time when they would normally choose to hang on to their assets and wait for the eventual upturn. Such transfers are occurring in the context of company insolvencies bank-driven reconstructions of solvent or near-solvent companies and matrimonial break-ups. In a plunging market often the highest tax cost will be the potential 4% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) hit on the transfer of the properties in these scenarios. Moreover the recent cut in...