meltonblue
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 14 May 2013
- Messages
- 8,722
If you sell your house to a third party, then it's clear who owns it and no ambiguity nor confusion arises.
But if you put it into trust for another party, whilst still treating it as your main home, it's a different situation isn't it. You're exploiting a technicality to reduce your stamp duty on a second home by claiming it's the only one you own, when in fact you have another home that you are treating as your own.
The fact her son was under 18 meant that technical opportunity ceased to exist.
But as I say, even if he was over 18, she may still have been in trouble. The HMRC can challenge arrangements when they suspect they feel they are contrived to avoid tax.
That’s not a technicality though, that’s just reality. It’s got nothing to do with where your main residence is. Stamp duty is all about ownership of homes as it’s the ownership that makes up the estate (obviously).
If he was over 18 she categorically would not have been in any trouble.
