The government is planning to provide partial stamp duty relief for charities.
Sean Randall, head of UK Stamp Taxes at KPMG, said: “The Government has committed to insert into the stamp duty land tax legislation (SDLT) words that the Court of Appeal has said can be treated as if they were already there, making it clear that charities can benefit from partial relief where they purchase land jointly with a non-charity.
“This is a sensible response to the Court of Appeal decision, earlier this year, in appeals brought by two charities. HMRC had denied partial relief to those charities, arguing that the SDLT legislation treats joint purchases as one transaction. That was accepted by the Court of Appeal but it also found that there was a sufficient policy ‘imperative’ to justify a method of interpretation that corrected what was an obvious drafting error.
“Today’s announcement will therefore enshrine a concept that is based on statutory interpretation and remove the potential for misunderstanding.”
