HMRC narrows SDLT further-transaction exception to section 71A

HMRC's Stamp Duty Land Tax manual page listing the transactions that do not need to be notified on forms SDLT1, SDLT3 and SDLT4 has been reworked. Most of the changes are presentation: headings recast as conditions, capitalisation regularised (including "Transactions 'exempt' under Schedule 3 of the Finance Act 2003" and "Some variations of testamentary dispositions"), and the closing note on claiming reliefs corrected so that reliefs must be claimed even where the SDLT chargeable is reduced to nil.

The one substantive change sits in the Alternative property finance row. The page previously listed as non-notifiable "'Further transactions' that are exempt under section 71A(4) or 72A(4) of the Finance Act 2003 (see section 71A(7) and 72A (7))". It now lists only "'Further transactions' that are exempt under section 71A(4) of the Finance Act 2003 (see also section 71A(7))". The reference to section 72A(4), and its associated section 72A(7) pointer, is gone.GOV

That cross-reference had no operative content in England and Wales in any event. Section 72, the Scottish leased-finance provision, and section 72A, the Scottish common-ownership finance provision, were both omitted from the Finance Act 2003 by the Scotland Act 2012, so SDLT no longer applies in Scotland and the Scottish provisions are spent. The live provision is section 71A, covering land sold to a financial institution and leased to the customer: any transfer to the customer resulting from the exercise of the repurchase right ("a further transaction") is exempt from charge where the first and second transactions complied and the institution held the interest throughout, and such an exempt further transaction is not notifiable unless it transfers the whole of the interest the institution purchased, so far as not already transferred.

The rest of the notification exceptions are unchanged in substance: acquisitions below £40,000 of chargeable consideration, seven-year-plus leases with rent under £1,000 and other consideration under £40,000, shorter leases within the zero rate threshold, Schedule 3 exempt transactions with no chargeable consideration, certain registered-social-landlord leases, relationship-breakdown and bereavement transactions, qualifying partnership-interest transfers, and non-major-interest acquisitions within the zero rate threshold.

The notification exceptions sit in HMRC's Stamp Duty Land Tax manual at SDLTm62030, grounded in the Finance Act 2003, sections 71A(4) and 71A(7).