Q My partner and I (unmarried) are looking to buy a property together in joint names. We both own homes separately under our individual names. We live in my partner’s property as our main residence and let out my property as I’m currently on maternity leave and have had issues selling it.
We are selling his property to fund the purchase and will look to sell my property next year when the tenancy ends.
We have a daughter and are due to get married next year. We have been informed we need to pay the higher rates of stamp duty because of my second property which for this purchase equates to approximately £15,000 and will be required on completion.
We understand the main residence argument doesn’t apply to this transaction although I haven’t lived in my property for more than a year and everything is registered including electoral roll at my partner’s address.
There is conflicting advice about whether as a married couple we wouldn’t be required to pay the extra tax and we thought rather unromantically about bringing the marriage service forward and using the £15,000 towards something else.
We phoned HMRC because of its guidance suggesting this and the person on the phone didn’t seem particularly confident on the advice given.
The examples appear to suggest married couples are exempt. It feels like a minefield and we don’t want to bring our ceremony forward for no reason.
LW
A Your interpretation of the guidance given in HM Revenue and Customs’ online stamp duty land tax (SDLT) manual – which applies in England and Northern Ireland – is correct. If you are married or in a civil partnership, the higher rates of SDLT do not apply to a joint purchase of a new main residence where a married couple both own property but have lived together in one of the properties as their main residence. Both halves of a married couple or civil partnership buying jointly count as replacing a main residence even though it’s actually only one half.
As an unmarried couple, you do have to pay the higher rates so I suggest that bringing your wedding forward makes the most financial sense. And given that it will mean that you have £15,000 to spend on something more fun than a tax bill, I disagree that it’s an unromantic thing to do.
The tax rules are different in Wales and Scotland, but in your scenario you would not have to pay the additional tax in either if you were married. In fact, in Scotland it does not matter if you are married or not.
