Stamp duty and what it means
Stamp duty in the United Kingdom is a form of tax charged on instruments such as written documents. Such is a government tax charged on the purchase of a property.
They usually require a physical stamp or an impressed stamp to be attached to them. Modern stamp duty documents do not require the traditional physical stamps any longer.
The uk stamp duty land tax was a new tax in transactions that involved land and was introduced by the Finance Act of 2003. This is what replaced the original stamp duty that went out of effect on the above mentioned date. SDLT is not a stamp duty, but instead , it is a self-assessed transfer tax that is normally charged on transactions involving land.
Typical transactions would include the buying and selling of residential properties. In this case there is little change from the original stamp duty except that a tax had to be reported to the HM Revenue & Customs. This was previously the Inland Revenue Services. In this place documents involved in land transactions would no longer require a physical stamp. HM Revenue & Customs is then allowed to inquire into an SDLT return and raise assessment costs that must be made to cover any unpaid SDLT.
Stamp duty land tax or SDLT for short is now a new transfer derived from stamp duty, was introduced for land transactions from Dec 1st 2003. The best way to avoid stamp duty is to stay in England Hotels, as it is obviously non chargeable in hotels.
