The question of SDLT came up yet again in a property group WhatsApp. This one was accompanied with a range of pictures showing just how terrible the condition of the property is in.
I jumped straight to my usual cautionary tale that most refund companies are scammers that used to sell PPI claims, R&D claims and diesel engine compensation schemes.
Why do I say that? Well because if it was as easy as they say to get an SDLT refund we’d all have to answer the obvious question of “Why are so many solicitors getting SDLT wrong?”.
Now there is a classic tension between the main professions that could be understood by most like a football rivalry. We each think that our particular profession is the most important and that we all uniquely make the world go round.
So I think solicitors are terrible (only kidding!) but even I would have to admit that it’s simply not probably that we have a situation where solicitors just keep getting this wrong.
In fact the professions are so sick of fraudulent SDLT claims that both the Chartered Institute of Tax and the Law Society have published plenty of cautionary articles which are quite easy to find.
A great article from CIOT is Stamp duty refunds: too good to be true?
HMRC have of course gotten in on the game via their manuals (always extremely useful!) – here.
So next time someone is pitching you a refund maybe ask them what they used to do for a living or what else they currently do… you don’t have to be a solicitor or tax advisor to know SDLT but it does at least mean you have someone overseen by a professional regulatory body who will get struck off if they are making things up…