The Gov­ern­ment announced changes to the com­mer­cial Stamp Duty régime dur­ing the 2016 Budget.

The Chan­cel­lor said it fol­lowed the suc­cess of Stamp Duty changes announced in a pre­vi­ous bud­get for peo­ple buy­ing homes.

If you are in the process of buy­ing a com­mer­cial prop­er­ty, your Solic­i­tor will work out the SDLT payable. HMRC also has an online cal­cu­la­tor to help you work out how much you will have to pay.

The new rates are set out below:

Zero — Up to £150,000 
2% — £125,001 to £250,000 
5% — £250,001 to £925,000 

There is also a new 2% rate for high-val­ue leas­es with net present val­ue above £5m

This com­pares with the old ​‘flat’ rates which applied to the whole pur­chase price and which are set out below:

Zero — Up to £150,000
1% — £150,001 to £250,000
3% — £250,001 to £500,000 
4% — £500,001+ 

For exam­ple, a buy­er who pur­chas­es a qual­i­fy­ing com­mer­cial prop­er­ty for £200,000 and com­pletes on or before 16th March 2016 will pay £2,000 in stamp duty. The same pur­chase that com­pletes from 17th March will result in a SDLT cost of £1,000.

Com­mer­cial Con­veyanc­ing Solic­i­tor, Luke Hewitt, said ​“The changes, although rather sud­den, are wel­comed as the sys­tem has been in need of reform for some time. The pre­vi­ous SDLT bands were rigid & did not reflect the upwards move­ment of aver­age prop­er­ty prices.”

To arrange a dis­cus­sion about com­mer­cial prop­er­ty, please get in touch with Luke Hewitt on 01625 523988 or mail@​JBGass.​com