Q&A: Stamp duty land tax group relief and bad purpose

On 20 November 2024 the Upper Tribunal (UT) handed down its decision in the stamp duty land tax (SDLT) group relief case of The Tower One St George Wharf Ltd v CRC [2024] UKUT 373 (TCC).

Why is this case interesting?

The UT dismissed the appeal holding that the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) did not make an error of law in concluding that the appellant was not entitled to SDLT group relief because it had a main purpose of tax avoidance even though no tax was avoided and an SDLT market value rule applied to the transaction because it had claimed the relief even though the claim was found to be invalid.

At its simplest the case concerns two SDLT transactions which were intended to protect the Berkeley Group from development risk – a commercial purpose – but were also intended to achieve...