Is there anyway that I can avoid paying stamp duty?

Is there anyway that I can avoid paying stamp duty?

Ray Boulger (Mortgage Advisor) gives expert video advice on: What is a Homebuyer's Report?; What is stamp duty and how much is it?; Is there anyway that I can avoid paying stamp duty? and more...

There are a couple of ways by which you may be able to reduce the stamp duty loan tax. First of all, there are some areas of the country that the government has labeled 'disadvantaged', where stamp duty only appplies on properties costing more than £150,000, so if you buy a property in one of those areas under £150,000, you won't pay any tax. The other option is that if the property you're buying includes some fixtures and fittings, things like carpets and curtains, you can exclude those from the purchase price of the property, and hence from stamp duty calculation. If, for example, you are buying a property for £255,000, and that incudes carpets and curtains, you may well be able to justify £5,000 of that purchase price for the carpets and curtains, and in that situation you will only pay tax up to £250,000, ie at one percent. The downside of that is that from a mortgage perspective, the mortgage will based on the lower figure. If you are looking to borrow a large percent of the value of the property, then doing this may restrict how much you can borrow.