Charities are granted relief from SDLT. This relief extends to charitable trusts, defined as a trust where all of the beneficiaries are charities or a unit trust scheme where all of the unit holders are charities.

The relief is available provided two conditions are met:

• The land must be held for qualifying charitable purposes either being used:
  • in furtherance of the charitable purposes of the purchaser or those of another charity or
  • as an investment with the profits derived from the land being applied to the charitable purposes of the purchaser
• The transaction was not entered into for the avoidance of tax by the charity or any other person.

Registered Social Landlord relief

Registered social landlords (RSLs) should qualify for exemption from SDLT, subject to the conditions in s71 FA2003; and if this is available a charitable social landlord should claim this relief in priority to the charity exemption because there are no provisions for clawback of RSL relief.