Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 section Schedule 5 paragraph 27

Trustees and beneficiaries: treatment of the buyer for higher rates purposes

Schedule 5 paragraph 27 provides that in certain trust situations involving dwellings, the beneficiary — rather than the trustee — is treated as the buyer for the purposes of determining whether higher rates of land transaction tax apply.

• Where a trustee of a settlement buys a major interest in one or more dwellings and a beneficiary is entitled to occupy the dwelling for life or receive income from it, the beneficiary is treated as the buyer instead of the trustee.
• Where a trustee of a bare trust acquires a leasehold interest in a dwelling, the beneficiary of the bare trust is similarly treated as the buyer rather than the trustee.
• This "look-through" approach means it is the beneficiary's personal circumstances — such as whether they already own another dwelling — that determine whether the higher rates of LTT apply.
• This rule overrides the general trust provisions that would otherwise treat the trustee as the buyer for LTT purposes.