The Independent reported yesterday that the Inland Revenue is taking a
very keen interest in the £500K sale, plus the ten grand for "fixtures
and fittings".


The money program on radio 4 said that yu can get away with it if its
reasonable.

Which it obviously wasn't as they conspired to defraud as soon as
they were
told that the stamp duty hike at 500k existed.
They told the viewers exactly what they were doing !



Its not illegal.
The stamp duty is on the land and the property. Not on 'demountable
objects' or indeed furniture. However the revenue takes a dim view of a
500 grand house with 300 grand of fitted carpets and curtain rails. But
will accept maybe 10k.

Up till now no one has really made a point of separating the two. Now
there is a point, so people will...as much as they can get away with.

Its legal and its only the fact that a stupid law that allows untaxed
transactions below 500k and taxes them at full whack at a penny over
that makes it a thing to be done.

If OTOH they simply taxed the residue ABOVE 500k at a small percentage,
then it wouldn';t be woth the bother of fiddling around with accounting.

Its a stupid tax in its implementation, it reduces the liquidity of the
market, and will be repealed as soon as tony and the boys get shoved
into the nether darkenss whence they came.



Its implementation has not changed over the years no matter what
government has been in power, so there is no reason to think the Boys in
Blue will change it.

The recent change in the law means that people will have to justify the
price of the fixtures and fittings at the time of sale, and the revenue
will be able to examine the transaction for up to 9 months.

Effectively, the Government have said that they know this is going on,
that they are losing revenue because of it, and they are taking steps to
recover more money out of it.

--
Richard Faulkner