Revision of How to amend an LBTT return from Fri, 09/16/2016 - 11:02

How to amend an LBTT return

Purpose of this guidance

This guidance will help you amend a Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) return after it has been made (whether online or by paper). This complements the separate guidance available on ‘How to make an online LBTT return’ and ‘How to make a paper LBTT return’.

If you wish to amend an online LBTT return solely to claim repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement please go straight to Section 2 ’Amending an online return - Additional Dwelling Supplement’.

If you wish to amend a paper LBTT return solely to claim repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement, please go straight to Section 4 ‘Amending a paper return -Additional Dwelling Supplement’.

If you wish to change the details of an online LBTT return before you have made it to us, see the separate guidance on draft returns in the ‘General guidance about the online LBTT return’ section of the ‘How to make an online LBTT return’ guidance.

Note: We do not accept amendments to returns over the phone.

This is not guidance to the tax itself. LBTT legislation guidance for taxpayers and agents is available separately on our website.

Legislation guidance for the RSTPA 2014 is also available, and RSTP1002 of that guidance covers information relevant to the amendment of tax returns.

All references in this guidance to:

the RSTPA 2014 means The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014;
‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ means Revenue Scotland; and
‘you’ means the person amending the LBTT return (either as the buyer or the buyer’s agent).

Protection of information

We will protect and handle any information that you provide to us in your tax return with care. For further information please see our Privacy Policy and guidance on taxpayer information (Chapter 9 of The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014 legislation guidance).

This guidance is divided into four sections:

Section 1: Amending an online LBTT return

Section 2: Amending an online return – Additional Dwelling Supplement (‘ADS’)

Section 3: Amending a paper LBTT return

Section 4: Amending a paper LBTT return – Additional Dwelling Supplement (‘ADS’)

Section 1: Amending an online LBTT return

You can amend an online LBTT return after submission by:

Selecting the SETS ‘Overview’ page and
then ‘Submitted Tax Returns Overview’ section
highlight relevant return from the list of returns and
then select the ‘Amend’ option from the ‘Action’ drop-down list.

This will take you into the original LBTT return and you can begin making the necessary amendments (including increasing or decreasing, if relevant, the figure in the ‘Total amount of tax due for this transaction’ field in the ‘About the Calculation’ section). Once you have finished, in order to submit the amended return to us select the ‘Submit’ option in the ‘Declaration’ section of the return.

If more tax is payable as a result of the amendments you have made, then the normal payment rules and arrangements apply – see the separate guidance on ‘How to pay LBTT’. You will also have to separately pay interest on the additional amount of tax payable, charged from the filing date of the return until the date the additional amount is paid.

Note: do not include the interest in the ‘Total amount of tax due for this transaction’ question in the ‘About the Calculation’ section of the LBTT return - Interest is administered separately by us and we will send you an Interest Notice if interest is due.

If less tax is payable, we will repay the excess amount to you with interest (see the separate guidance on interest on repayments provided at RSTP4004).

If you are amending a return solely to claim repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement – Please follow the guidance in Section 2: ‘Amending an online return - Additional Dwelling Supplement’

If the amended return contains an inaccuracy then the person on whose behalf the amended return is being made may be liable to a penalty – see RSTP3011.

Additional rules about amending an online LBTT return

Rule 1: Under section 83 of The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014, no amendment is possible more than 12 months after the filing date and the ‘Amend’ option will be greyed out to prevent you inadvertently doing this after the time limit. If the time limit for amending a LBTT return has passed you can claim a repayment from us, as long as you do so within five years of the filing date – see RSTP7003.

The ‘filing date’, as defined in section 82 of The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014, is ‘the date by which that return requires to be made by under any enactment’ – in other words it is the last day on which the return can be made to us before it is late. In a standard house purchase, for example, the filing date is 30 beginning with the day after the effective date of the transaction, but other filing dates may apply to other types of land transaction.

Rule 2: You can amend all details on the LBTT return apart from the ‘Description of transaction’ field in the ‘About the Transaction’ section. In other words, a return made to us with the ‘Conveyance or transfer’ option selected cannot be changed afterwards to the ‘Lease’ option, and vice versa.

If you do need to change the ‘Description of transaction’ field (for example, you might have mistakenly confused some of the details of one transaction for another) then in addition to making a new LBTT return to us you must void the original return by:

selecting the relevant return you wish to void in the ‘Submitted Tax Returns Overview’ section of the ‘Overview’ page; and
then selecting the ‘Void’ option from the ‘Action’ drop-down list.

Rule 3: In addition to rule 2, although you can amend (subject to the time limit in rule 1) any details in the ‘About the Buyer’, ‘About the Seller’ and ‘About the Transaction’ sections of the return, you should make a new LBTT return and void the original return if any details in these sections alter the transaction to such an extent that it essentially constitutes a different transaction. Examples of this would be:

the identity of the buyer changing – for example, the original return contained the wrong buyer;
the identity of the seller changing – for example, the original return contained the wrong seller; or
the property (or properties) involved in the transaction changing – for example, the original return contained the wrong property (or properties).
you have declared additional dwelling supplement as due in error.

For instructions on how to void a return see rule 2 above or the ‘General guidance about the online LBTT return’ section of the separate ‘How to make an online LBTT return’ guidance.

Claiming a repayment of LBTT

If, as a result of amending the return, less tax is due, you can claim a repayment by completing the following additional fields in the ‘Declaration’ section of the return:

Answer ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Are you claiming a repayment of tax?’,

This will enable the following mandatory fields:

‘Is repayment of ADS following the sale of the buyer’s previous main residence being claimed’- Please select ‘No’ unless you are claiming a repayment of ADS in which case you should follow the guidance in Section 2.
‘Bank details for repayment to be made to’. Enter the bank details for the repayment to be made to. Please check that the bank details are correct before completing the declaration confirming that the buyer(s) have authorised repayment to be made to that bank account.

Once you are satisfied that all the details are correct you can submit the return.

We aim to deal with all repayment claims for which we have full information within 10 working days of receiving them. We will contact you if we need further information to enable us to make the repayment.

Section 2: Amending an online return - Additional Dwelling Supplement (’ADS’)

If the buyer paid ADS on a transaction that

was or included the purchase of their next main residence and
the buyer has been able to dispose of their previous main residence within an 18 month period beginning with the day after the effective date of the purchase transaction.

Then the buyer may claim a repayment of the ADS paid on the consideration attributed to the next main residence. See LBTT10070 for further guidance.

If you completed an online return and are claiming repayment of ADS within 12 months of the filing date of the original return, you can submit a claim by amending the original LBTT return online.

If you completed an online return and are claiming a repayment of ADS more than 12 months after the filing date of the original return, you can no longer amend the online return. You must instead submit your claim using the ADS Repayment Claim Form.”

If you no longer have access to the online version of the original return because you have changed agent, you can submit a claim using the ‘ADS Repayment Claim Form’.

See Section 4: ‘Amending a paper return - Additional Dwelling Supplement’ for guidance on how to complete and submit the ‘ADS Repayment Claim Form’.

To amend an online return to claim repayment of ADS:

Select the SETS ‘Overview’ page
Select ‘Submitted Tax Returns Overview’ section
Highlight the relevant return from the list of returns and
then select the ‘Amend’ option from the ‘Action’ drop-down list.

This will take you into the original LBTT return.

Note: If you are amending the return to claim repayment of ADS following the sale of the buyer’s previous main residence, you must not amend the question ‘Is Additional Dwelling Supplement (‘ADS’) due on this transaction’ in the ‘About the Transaction’ section. If you amend this from ‘yes’ to ‘no’, you will lose all the information previously entered in the ADS section of the return.

Go to the 'About the Calculation' section.

To claim a repayment of ADS:

Answer ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Are you claiming Reliefs or Repayment?’
Select ‘ADS - Repayment of ADS paid’ from the ‘Type of reliefs orrepayment’ drop down menu
Enter the amount of ADS repayment being claimed (the tax amount paid) (See note below if the transaction was for more than one property).
Click on the ‘Calculate’ button to recalculate the amount of ADS due after deducting the ADS repayment
Check that the figure of ‘ADS less relief / repayment’ shown as due and payable is correct. This field will be pre-populated based on the information that you have entered on the return but it is editable.
Check that the ‘Total amount of tax due for this transaction’ is correct. This field will be pre-populated and will show the total of the two preceding fields. It is not editable.
Go to the ‘Declaration’ section.

Transactions for more than one property:

If the transaction involved both the purchase of a replacement main residence and also the acquisition of the ownership of other dwellings, only the ADS paid on the proportion of the purchase price attributed, on a just and reasonable basis to the new main residence will be repayable. The repayment claim must therefore be limited to this amount. See LBTT10070 for further guidance.

‘About the Declaration’ section.

Answer ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Are you claiming a repayment of tax’,

This will enable the following mandatory fields:

‘Is repayment of ADS following the sale of the buyer’s previous main residence being claimed’ - Please select ‘Yes or ‘No’. If you answer ‘Yes’ to this question, the following question will appear and you must also answer this:
‘Date of sale of previous main residence’. Enter the date of completion of the sale of the buyer’s previous main residence.
‘Bank details for repayment to be made to’. Enter the bank details for the repayment to be made to. Please check that the bank details are correct before completing the declaration confirming that the buyer(s) have authorised repayment to be made to that bank account.

Once you are satisfied that all the details are correct you can submit the return.

Note: The online return will show the total tax due for this transaction after taking account of the amendment made to claim repayment of ADS. The return will not display the amount to be repaid. This will be calculated by us and will be the difference between the amount already paid and the total amount of tax due according to this amended return.

Interest is due on a repayment of ADS and we will include this in the sum that we repay.

Section 3: Amending a paper LBTT return

You can amend an LBTT return which has originally been made to us in paper format by writing to us at the address shown further below (quoting the return reference number) and telling us, for each field you wish to amend, the current entry and the entry you wish to amend to.

You can also use this method to amend an LBTT return which was originally made to us online, for example; if you no longer have access to the online version of the return because you have changed agent.

Note: If you are amending a return solely to claim repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement – Please follow the guidance in Section 4: ‘Amending a paper return - Additional Dwelling Supplement’

No amendment is possible more than 12 months after the filing date of the return. We will reject any requests for amendments received after the expiry of this 12 month amendment period.

The ‘filing date’, as defined in section 82 of The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014, is ‘the date by which that return requires to be made by or under any enactment’ – in other words it is the last day on which the return can be made to us before it is late. In a standard house purchase, the filing date is 30 days after the effective date of the transaction, but other filing dates apply to other types of land transaction.

If more tax is payable as a result of the amendments you have made, then the normal payment rules and arrangements apply (that is, you must enclose a cheque for the additional amount payable) – see the separate guidance on ‘How to pay LBTT’. You will also have to separately pay interest on the additional amount of tax payable, charged from the filing date of the return until the date the additional amount is paid.

Note: do not include the interest in any request to amend the ‘Total amount of tax due for this transaction’ question in the ‘About the Calculation’ section of the LBTT return. Interest is administered separately by us and we will send you an Interest Notice if interest is due.

If less tax is payable, we will repay the excess amount to you with interest (see the separate guidance on interest on repayments provided at RSTP4004).

If the amended return contains an inaccuracy then the person on whose behalf the amended return is being made may be liable to a penalty – see RSTP3011.

All amendments to paper returns and any associated payments should be sent to:

Revenue Scotland

PO Box 24068

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh

EH6 9BR

Section 4: Amending a paper LBTT return – Additional Dwelling Supplement (‘ADS’)

If the buyer paid ADS on a transaction that

was or included the purchase of their next main residence and
the buyer has been able to dispose of their previous main residence within an 18 month period beginning with the day after the effective date of that purchase transaction,

then the buyer may claim a repayment of the ADS paid on the consideration attributed to the next main residence. See LBTT10070 for further guidance.

You can amend a return to claim repayment of ADS using the ‘ADS Repayment Claim form’ in the following situations:

The original return was submitted on paper and you wish to amend this return to claim repayment of ADS and you are within the 12 month window allowed for amending that return.
The original return was submitted online and you wish to amend this return to claim repayment of ADS and you are within the twelve month window allowed to amend that return but you no longer have access to the online version of the return.

Separate guidance on ‘How to claim a repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement’ is available to help you complete the repayment claim form.

We will aim to process the repayment within 10 working days and we will repay the ADS to you with interest (see the separate guidance on interest on repayments provided at RSTP4004).

Transactions for more than one property:

Last updated

12 September 2016