Charities which have jointly purchased a property with an organisation which is not a charity, such as a trading arm, can now claim for overpaid stamp duty land tax, following a Court of Appeal ruling.

In June, the Court of Appeal overruled a decision by the Upper-Tier Tax Tribunal in the case of The Pollen Estate Trustee Company Limited and Kings College London v HMRC.

The Tribunal had ruled that a stamp duty land tax relief on the charity’s share of a property purchase should not be allowed, because purchasers had a joint obligation to file a single land transaction return.

But the Court of Appeal overturned this decision and decided relief is limited to where a charity uses the greater part of its share of the property for a charitable purpose. The portion of stamp duty land tax to be paid by a non-charity partner will still be based on a percentage of the total cost of the property acquired.

Mike Scoltock, a senior tax partner at Blick Rothenberg, said the move was unexpected as HMRC had been winning lots of stamp duty land tax cases recently.

For more details on how to make any claims click here.