Charitable housing associations have won a partial victory on a stamp duty ruling that was set to cost them up to £10m.
Representatives from the sector met with the Inland Revenue on Tuesday to seek concessions on the stamp duty land tax regime, which came into force in December 2003.

Under the new rules charitable associations will have to pay stamp duty if they sell land, homes or commercial buildings even if the profits are ploughed back into social housing. Associations would also have to pay stamp duty on the social housing part of a mixed-tenure plot.

However at this week's meeting, the Inland Revenue agreed to draft an amendment to the Finance Act to allow charitable associations to claim relief on the social housing part of mixed-tenure projects.

Under the old stamp duty regime, charitable associations did not have to pay the tax.

Charlie Proddow, partner at law firm Devonshires, hailed the amendment as a partial triumph. He said: "The possible good news is that the Inland Revenue has said there is no policy reason why they should not introduce partial charities relief. For example, where you are buying land and you know you will sell part on so you get relief on the part you use for charitable purposes."

He added that the Inland Revenue has asked the National Housing Federation to provide more data on mixed tenure and to come up with a "wish list" of changes to stamp duty land tax.

Source

Housing Today