Stamp Duty Land Tax for Landlords

As you can see from the table above, Stamp Duty Land Tax has become a major concern for landlords, particularly since Osborne's outrageous decision to penalise small residential landlords - before he was happily sacked.

Since April 2016 all purchases of buy-to-let property have incurred an EXTRA 3% premium. This was announced as a way of helping first time buyers but was in my opinion merely a way of helping major City institutions to get a piece of the buy to let pie. This is because different rules apply to corporate bodies and more importantly much less tax is payable on a simultaneous purchase of six or more properties.

Slicing not Slabbing

The one sensible change that Osborne did was to do away with the 'all or nothing' slabbing effect of Stamp Duty. In other words, now you only pay the next level of tax on only the amount by which your purchase price EXCEEDS that level and not only the WHOLE amount as previously.

Example
A buy-to-let landlord buys a property for £350,000. Thus the tax he or she pays is as follows:
£40,000 - £125,000 the tax is £2550 (3%)
£125001 - £250,000 the tax is £6250 (5%)
£250,001 - £350,000 the tax is £8000 (8%)
Thus the TOTAL SDLT this landlord has to pay amounts to a massive £16,800