Guidance on Charities Relief for SDLT Transactions Involving Welsh Land

Withdrawal of SDLT Charities Relief for Pre-April 2018 Welsh Land Transactions

If SDLT charities relief was claimed on a land transaction involving Welsh land with an effective date before 1 April 2018, any later event that causes the relief to be withdrawn is still dealt with under the SDLT rules, not Land Transaction Tax. Even if the withdrawal event happens after LTT started in Wales, the further return must be sent by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office and any tax due must be paid to HMRC as SDLT.

• The rule applies where charities relief was originally claimed under SDLT for a transaction that took effect before 1 April 2018 and included land in Wales.
• A later switch from SDLT to LTT in Wales does not change the tax regime for withdrawing that original SDLT relief.
• If a withdrawal event occurs on or after 1 April 2018, the withdrawal is still governed by Schedule 8 to the Finance Act 2003.
• The further return is not made through an LTT filing system; it must be submitted by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office.
• Any tax payable on withdrawal is SDLT and must be paid to HMRC.
• The key practical check is the original transaction date and regime, not the date of the later withdrawal event.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

Withdrawal of SDLT charities relief for Welsh land on pre-1 April 2018 transactions

This page explains what happens if charities relief was claimed for Stamp Duty Land Tax on a land transaction that took effect before 1 April 2018 and involved land in Wales, but a later event means the relief must be withdrawn. The key point is that the old SDLT withdrawal rules can still apply after Wales moved to Land Transaction Tax.

What this rule is about

Wales stopped using SDLT for most Welsh land transactions from 1 April 2018, when LTT took over. That change can create uncertainty where a transaction happened before that date, but something happens later which affects a relief that was claimed at the time.

The source material deals with one specific relief: charities relief under section 68 and Schedule 8 to the Finance Act 2003. It addresses the position where:

• charities relief was claimed for an SDLT transaction,
• the transaction’s effective date was before 1 April 2018, and
• the transaction included an interest in land in Wales.

In that situation, the later switch from SDLT to LTT does not move the case into the LTT regime for withdrawal purposes. If a later event triggers withdrawal of the original SDLT relief, the SDLT rules in Schedule 8 FA 2003 still govern that withdrawal.

What the official source says

The official material says that where charities relief was claimed on a qualifying SDLT transaction with an effective date before 1 April 2018, and the transaction included Welsh land, the withdrawal provisions in Schedule 8 FA 2003 continue to apply even if the event that causes the withdrawal happens on or after 1 April 2018.

It also says that in this situation:

• a further return must be made by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office, following the approach referred to in SDLTM50400, and
• any SDLT due on withdrawal is paid to HMRC.

The source then notes that charities relief also exists under LTT, in Schedule 18 to the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act, and that it operates in a similar way to the SDLT relief.

What this means in practice

The practical effect is that you need to identify which tax regime the original transaction belonged to. If the original acquisition was an SDLT transaction before 1 April 2018, the later withdrawal question stays within SDLT, even if the land is in Wales and even if the triggering event happens after LTT began.

That matters because a person might otherwise assume that anything happening after 1 April 2018 in relation to Welsh land must be dealt with under LTT. This source says that would be wrong for withdrawal of charities relief on these pre-commencement SDLT transactions.

So the relevant practical steps are:

• look at the effective date of the original land transaction,
• check whether charities relief was claimed under SDLT,
• confirm that the transaction included land in Wales, and
• if a later event causes the relief to be withdrawn, deal with that under the SDLT rules, not LTT.

The return is not made through a normal new LTT filing. Instead, the source says a further return must be submitted by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office, and any tax payable is SDLT paid to HMRC.

How to analyse it

A sensible way to analyse this issue is to work through the following questions.

• Was there an SDLT transaction at all? The source is only dealing with cases where charities relief was claimed under the SDLT rules.
• What was the effective date of that transaction? The rule applies where the effective date was before 1 April 2018.
• Did the transaction include an interest in land in Wales? That is the cross-border or transitional feature this guidance is addressing.
• Has something happened that gives rise to withdrawal of the relief? The source assumes that a withdrawal event has occurred and tells you which regime applies when it does.
• Which authority should receive the return and payment? For these cases, the source says the further return goes by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office and the SDLT is paid to HMRC.

This is mainly a transitional rule. It is not changing the substantive conditions for charities relief or withdrawal. It is telling you which legal framework and filing route continue to apply after the Welsh tax changeover.

Example

Illustration: a charity bought Welsh land in March 2018 and claimed SDLT charities relief on that purchase. In 2019, an event occurs which means the relief must be withdrawn under the relevant rules. Even though the land is in Wales and the event happened after LTT started, the withdrawal is still dealt with under Schedule 8 FA 2003. The further return is made by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office, and any tax due is paid to HMRC as SDLT.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The main difficulty is that there are two similar relief regimes operating at different times for Welsh land: SDLT before 1 April 2018 and LTT from that date onwards. Because charities relief also exists under LTT and works in a similar way, it is easy to jump to the wrong conclusion and treat a later withdrawal event as an LTT matter simply because it happened after devolution.

Another practical difficulty is that the source material here is narrow. It tells you which regime applies and how the further return must be made, but it does not set out in this extract the detailed circumstances in which charities relief is withdrawn. Those details still need to be taken from the underlying SDLT legislation and any related HMRC material.

There may also be administrative uncertainty for readers who are more familiar with modern online filing routes. This source specifically says that the further return must be submitted by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office, which is unusual enough that it should not be assumed away.

Key takeaways

• If SDLT charities relief was claimed on a Welsh land transaction with an effective date before 1 April 2018, a later withdrawal is still governed by the SDLT rules.
• The fact that the withdrawal event happens on or after 1 April 2018 does not move the case into LTT.
• In these cases, the further return is submitted by letter to Birmingham Stamp Office and any tax due is paid to HMRC as SDLT.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guidance on Charities Relief for SDLT Transactions Involving Welsh Land

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