Who is David Hannah from Cornerstone?
Due to the number of changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and the economic changes the country has been through in the last two years, the number of homebuyers seeking SDLT refunds is on the rise.
If you have overpaid SDLT, you are entitled to claim a refund. The problem, however, is that most homeowners are not aware that they’ve overpaid SDLT.
It’s estimated that as many as 120,000 home buyers may be owed tax due to overpaying, yet only a small number of those individuals will ever be aware that they’re owed money from the government.
The only way to be sure of whether or not you’ve overpaid in the past is to work with a qualified tax advisor like David Hannah.
David Hannah ACA, CTA, is a Principal Consultant at Cornerstone Stamp Duty Land Tax Advisors. David has helped countless people discover they’ve overpaid SDLT and successfully claim a refund from HM Revenue and Customs.
How do homebuyers overpay stamp duty land tax?
When you first look at the brackets for Stamp Duty rates when buying a home, it looks fairly straightforward to calculate. Generally speaking, Stamp Duty is broken down into brackets based on the purchase price of a home or piece of land.
But it can get very complex as you take into account all of your personal circumstances. There are more than 30 different exemptions they can apply to a property and your individual circumstances, calculating stamp duty is far from linear as it first looks on paper.
When you purchased your home or property, you more than likely will have relied on your solicitor to calculate the stamp duty.
The issue here is that solicitors generally rely on HMRC’s own online Stamp Duty Land Tax calculator to calculate SDLT. The HMRC have themselves stated that their calculator is to be used merely as a guide and not a comprehensive solution that is 100% correct.
In addition to this, through no fault of their own, a lot of solicitors failed to ask the right questions or assume things that may not be correct about the home buyer.
These two things combined are what results in around 1 and 5 home buyers paying an incorrect amount of SDLT.
How can you check if you’re owed Stamp Duty Land Tax?
Unfortunately, you cannot go directly to HMRC and have them check your stamp duty and get back to you with a definitive answer. HMRC can only use the information that you or your solicitor had submitted to them originally as a basis to calculate your tax.
The only way to check if you paid the right amount is to revisit your purchase and look at the laws that were in place at the time you made the purchase. With stamp duty being subject to more changes than any other comparable tax in recent years, this can be a complex task.
The only way to be 100% sure if you paid the right amount of SDLT is to have your records checked by an SDLT specialist like David Hannah at Cornerstone.
Cornerstone is one of the fastest-growing tax advisory companies in the UK. They have offices in both Leicestershire and London, and specialise in Stamp Duty Land Tax.
The legislation governing SDLT is full of exemptions, reliefs, and different rules, and the lack of support from HMRC only further complicates the issue.
With overpaying being such a common occurrence and potentially hundreds, thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands of pounds at stake, it’s worth your time to contact David Hannah at Cornerstone to have your transaction assessed.
