Overview

HM Revenue & Customs has added certain stamp duty land tax sub-sale schemes to the list of transactions it sees as ineffective due to tax avoidance motives.

Since April 2009, HMRC has published a series called Spotlights, highlighting areas in which HMRC perceives tax avoidance is taking place. Whilst these are only HMRC’s views and do not have the force of law, they give a good indication of which areas are likely to attract increased HMRC attention.

On 7 June 2010, HMRC added a new ‘spotlight’ which flagged that ‘commercial and residential property sales are being carried out in ways intended to avoid’ SDLT, and ‘in some cases an intermediate sale … is introduced into the arrangements with the sole intention of removing the true purchase price from tax’ by seeking to exploit sub-sale relief.

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