Last week the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced a package of measures to tackle current avoidance of stamp duty on commercial property transactions and launched major reform to modernise stamp duty on land and buildings in the UK. The reformed stamp duty regime, however, will not apply to the transfer of debts.
The transfer of debts will be removed form the scope of the modernised stamp duty regime, outlined below, with effect from late 2003. The removal of transfer of debts form the remit of the reform will, according to the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty’s Treasury, “make it easier for companies to raise finance through debt factoring and the issue of bonds secured on debt portfolios.
