Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 section Schedule 2 paragraph 9

Assents and appropriations by personal representatives and variations of testamentary dispositions

Schedule 2 paragraph 9 deals with how chargeable consideration is calculated when property is transferred by personal representatives (executors) or when a will or other testamentary disposition is varied after death.

• When a personal representative transfers property from a deceased's estate and the recipient assumes a secured debt (such as an outstanding mortgage), that secured debt is excluded from the chargeable consideration for LBTT purposes.
• Without this rule, assuming a secured debt would count as giving consideration, which would prevent the transaction from being fully exempt under the normal exemption for assents and appropriations by personal representatives.
• Where a testamentary disposition (such as a will) is varied after death and the variation would otherwise be exempt but for the fact that consideration was given, any consideration that takes the form of varying another testamentary disposition is excluded from the chargeable consideration.
• These rules ensure that common post-death property arrangements — such as beneficiaries taking on mortgaged property or families redistributing an estate by deed of variation — are not unnecessarily penalised for LBTT purposes.