Stamp Taxes Online: Further Enhancements

New guidance for online lease notification (19th October 06)

As part of our aim to continually improve the service we give, we have produced a step-by-step guide to filing each of the following lease transactions online.

  • Grant of Single Property Lease (Code ‘L’)
    • covering Residential, Non Residential & Mixed transactions
  • Grant of a Head Lease – Subject to Multiple Leases/Tenancies (Code ‘L’)
    • covering Residential, Non Residential & Mixed transactions
  • • Multiple Linked Grants of Lease (Code ‘L’)
    • covering Non Residential & Mixed transactions

Multiple Linked Grants of Lease Guidance

Our free Online Tax Return - Land Transaction product, can only take one set of lease details within each online return. This guidance identifies how multiple lease transactions can be completed by evidencing each of the lease transactions separately and treating each online return as linked.

Users of TPV internet filing software

If you are using 3rd party commercial software, you should be able to notify multiple linked grants of lease on one return. Please check with your software provider.

Within the ‘Multiple Linked Grants of Lease’ guidance, we have also included guidance on how to self assess your tax calculation for linked lease transactions.

Maintain agent details (1st November 06)

As a result of customer feedback we have enhanced the ‘maintain agent details’ function within our online tax return - land transaction product, to allow you to enter multiple agent address details. By following the on-screen guidance you can add up to a maximum of 25 addresses.

For every new return you will now have the option to choose the address you want to auto-populate.

You also have the option to edit or delete agent details entered, at any time. Using this function allows you to choose your particular agent details (name, address, DX number, telephone number and email address) and have those changes automatically copied into each return when it is created. For more information see Stamp Taxes Online ‘Latest news’.

Validation change to ‘Start date of lease’ (April 07)

In April 2007, we will make a small enhancement to the validation of the lease date (Questions 17 of the SDLT 1 and question 19 of the SDLT 4) allowing you to enter a ‘start date of lease’ from the 01/01/1500. This validation also allows you to enter a future date – enabling a number of land transactions to be notified online, which can’t be done at present.

Upgrades to HMRC’s web portal (June 07)

HMRC is introducing a number of changes to the current web portal, to allow customers to:

  • use a single ‘Log On’ page;
  • have a single ‘register’ function

for all its services. This means that when the new web portal goes live, existing online users will be able to register for a single ‘login’. They can then access all HMRC services without having to log-off and log back in again. This opportunity will be offered on-screen when people login using their existing details.

Implementation of the new portal infrastructure will enable HMRC to provide more robust services with richer functionality, enhanced security and system management.

The early phases of this work largely comprise ‘behind the scenes’ upgrades to the hardware and applications that run HMRC’s portal-based online services. We will keep you fully informed about any changes before they ‘go live’ in June 07, so that you are prepared for them.

Future online enhancements (2007)

As a result of customer feedback, we are also impacting and developing the following enhancements.

  • Extending field lengths
  • Issuing a warning if the effective date is 30 days before the current date
  • Giving the ability to add more than one title number
  • Showing the deletion date of in progress & successfully submitted returns
  • Creating a list of vendors/purchasers (similar to the maintain agent details function), which would detail up to 25 vendors/purchasers

We always welcome suggestions on how we can improve our online service. You can do this by choosing the feedback option when logging out of our service.