Business Services • Business Tax • Personal tax
HMRC recently updated its guidance on the reimbursement of travel costs to employees and what this m...
By RJP LLP on 30 April, 2024
Business Services • Coronavirus Advice • Personal tax • Property
Stamp duty holiday finishes at the end of March
By RJP LLP on 9 February 2021
The stamp duty holiday certainly had the desired effect and has helped create a mini property boom at a time when the industry could have totally nose-dived.
In spite of lobbying by the property industry to retain the holiday and help first time buyers, there has not yet been any suggestion of an extension to the reduced rates of SDLT. Unless an announcement to the contrary is made, the holiday period will be coming to an end on 31 March 2021.
Economic data has shown that the policy has increased property prices and had a negative effect on first time buyers by making it more difficult for them to get on the property ladder - the average cost of a London property is now £500,000 and it is £250,000 elsewhere in the UK.
It is possible the extension will be retained in circumstances where property is already under offer and this may include a ‘completion by’ timeframe. This is what is being requested by the industry and it could be announced in the spring budget 2021. A policy like this would, according to Rightmove, help around 100,000 buyers who are midway into a transaction and unlikely to be able to complete by 31 March 2021.
At a time when anything and everything is possible, we will just have to wait and see what Rishi Sunak unveils in his budget on 3 March 2021.
