TLDR; is deliberately paying SDLT late and incurring interest a viable way to get a cheap loan that doesn't impact your lending/credit scores? Is it legal and above board or is it murky territory?
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We've found a house we want to buy and it looks like we may have a buyer for our current home. As previously covered on CUK, this new house is largely made possible by inheritance in the form of my late parents' house which remains unsold.
It appears we can just stretch to get a large enough mortgage in the interim but one aspect is we might have to raid ISAs to fund the SDLT (~20k) as it puts us right on the edge... if we need a new car or something in the next few months...
It appears you have 30 days to pay SDLT upon completion otherwise you start paying interest at the government's set rate, currently 2.75% AFAIK.
So I wondered, could you deliberately leave this unpaid and willingly pay the interest as a very cheap loan? My concern of borrowing the normal way is it might affect what we can borrow for a mortgage and gain us nothing. In a few months I'd have more dividends or maybe we've sold the other house and all the problems go away.
I can't see this described as illegal or a grey area, which I wouldn't be happy to pursue... is it legitimate to view this as paying for a loan/deferment from HMRC or is it opening a big can of worms ethically/morally in your view?
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We've found a house we want to buy and it looks like we may have a buyer for our current home. As previously covered on CUK, this new house is largely made possible by inheritance in the form of my late parents' house which remains unsold.
It appears we can just stretch to get a large enough mortgage in the interim but one aspect is we might have to raid ISAs to fund the SDLT (~20k) as it puts us right on the edge... if we need a new car or something in the next few months...
It appears you have 30 days to pay SDLT upon completion otherwise you start paying interest at the government's set rate, currently 2.75% AFAIK.
So I wondered, could you deliberately leave this unpaid and willingly pay the interest as a very cheap loan? My concern of borrowing the normal way is it might affect what we can borrow for a mortgage and gain us nothing. In a few months I'd have more dividends or maybe we've sold the other house and all the problems go away.
I can't see this described as illegal or a grey area, which I wouldn't be happy to pursue... is it legitimate to view this as paying for a loan/deferment from HMRC or is it opening a big can of worms ethically/morally in your view?
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