Practice guide: how to avoid SDLT bear traps

Most tax practitioners will occasionally encounter SDLT issues. However beyond a knowledge of the basic principles and compliance requirements of the tax the legislation contains a number of traps for the unwary.

Often these traps derive from concerns relating to specific factual situations or were introduced to counter mitigation schemes that are no longer effective. In many cases they will produce counter-intuitive results.

In this article we outline a number of the traps that are more commonly encountered. The article assumes a basic knowledge of SDLT and does not purport to provide a comprehensive list of all of the multitude of potential pitfalls that can arise for which reference should be made to any of the many textbooks on the subject.

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