New legislation coming into effect later this year will mean that stamp duty has to be paid on or within 90 days of exchange of all contracts with a value of more than £10m, regardless of whether the transaction is completed.
Aimed at reducing stamp duty avoidance, the new legislation will apply to all contracts worth more than £10m which are exchanged after the Finance Act 2002 is passed.
Managing Partner and Head of Property and Construction at commercial law firm Laytons David Mears commented: "This is the first step towards making stamp duty a transaction based tax rather than a document base tax. It has far reaching implications for sellers of commercial property - who quite feasibly could have to protect their interests by paying the stamp duty themselves."
"Sellers in this position will need to include provisions in their contracts to recover stamp duty from the buyer, and this is something we at Laytons are already considering in our dealings with clients."
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