Now that Scotland and Wales have their very own stamp duty taxes buying a house in the border areas between Wales and England, and Scotland and England, raise some interesting planning options.
Consider Llanymynech, a village that straddles the border between Powys (Wales) and Shropshire (England). The amount of stamp duty payable on an identically priced house, say £179,000, would cost the buyer £1,080 in Stamp Duty Land Tax if bought in the English side of the village, but no Land Transaction Tax would be payable for an equivalently priced house in the Welsh side of the village. A definite incentive to buy in this price bracket the Welsh side of the border.
If you live in the Scotland/England border areas and you are contemplating the purchase of an expensive property and your budget is £1m, you may want to consider the following numbers:
- Buying in Scotland would cost you £78,350 in Land Transaction Tax, and
- Buying in England would cost you a mere £43,750 in Stamp Duty Land Tax.
Scotland has also set its own Income Tax rates for 2018-19. So, depending on the amount of your income, you may pay more or less income tax depending which side of the border you choose to live.
These border considerations will need to be considered as our regions gain more autonomy over their local taxes. They unfortunately add another raft of regulation that will have to be considered when planning on the situation of your residence (in border areas) for stamp duty and income tax in the years to come.