Paul Rosser explains how and why Angela Rayner fell foul of the SDLT rules.
As you no doubt read, Angela Rayner, the then Deputy Prime Minister, hit the headlines this summer when it was claimed that she avoided paying the correct amount of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on a property she had purchased in Hove in May 2025.
It subsequently emerged that Ms Rayner hadn’t paid the right amount of SDLT, and she was forced to resign over this matter. So, how did the Deputy Prime Minister end up in such a position?
When Ms Rayner bought the property for £800,000, she paid £30,000 of SDLT, based on this being the only property she owned.
In 2016, an enhanced rate of SDLT was introduced, which meant that when someone is buying a property which results in them owning two or more properties, they sometimes have to pay a surcharge (which as of May 2025 was 5%). There is an exception for someone who buys a property to live in as their sole or main residence, if they count as ‘replacing’ their residence (one of the conditions for this exception is that there has been a sale or disposal of another property which they had lived in as their only or main residence).
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