Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 section Schedule 5 paragraph 31

Trustees of settlements where beneficiaries have no right to occupy or receive income

Schedule 5 paragraph 31 deals with how the higher rates test applies when an individual trustee of a settlement buys a dwelling, but no beneficiary has the right to occupy the property for life or receive income from it.

• This rule applies where a dwelling is purchased by an individual acting as trustee of a settlement, and no beneficiary is entitled to occupy the dwelling for life or receive income from it.
• When these conditions are met, the normal test that asks whether the buyer is an individual (used in paragraphs 20 and 21 to determine higher rates liability) is set aside for that trustee.
• If the trustee is the sole buyer, the "buyer is not an individual" condition is simply ignored — meaning the transaction is assessed as though the buyer were not an individual, making higher rates more likely to apply.
• If there are multiple buyers, the individual test is only ignored in respect of the trustee buyer, while the other buyers are assessed on their own circumstances as normal.