VAT goes down to 15% on Monday. It will come back up again to 17.5% in 13 months time. (If you believe the Tories, it will go up again to 18.5% sometime thereafter). Remember that a chargeable consideration for SDLT purposes is taken to include VAT that is chargeable on the consideration. This means that, on acquisitions, the SDLT bill goes down. However, on new leases, although the SDLT bill also goes down, the calculation gets a little more complicated than one would wish – since, of course, you are required to make use of the rents (plus VAT) payable over the first five years of the term. The changing VAT rates therefore require a little bit of thought….,
Property PSL