‘I divorced my abusive ex and then HMRC stung me with stamp duty’

QI split with my wife in 2019 after she became abusive and threatening towards me. The divorce was protracted owing to her refusing all avenues of mediation and arbitration, and we ended up going through to a full court trial, which was very long-winded.

We sold our home and eventually both bought new ones. I met someone else and bought a house for £750,000 with her, paying £22,000 in second home stamp duty because the family home had not yet sold. HMRC has a three-year window during which you can claim the stamp duty back if you go on to sell your primary home.

However, because of the protracted nature of the divorce, the fact the marital home took 13 months to sell, and various other factors, I missed the deadline.

I tried to appeal on the basis that I had been through an extremely messy divorce, made lengthier by my ex’s failure to co- operate. We also struggled to sell the family home in a timely manner because Covid had messed with the property market at the time, as well as the war in Ukraine and jumping interest rates.

HMRC’s website says it does make special allowances for stamp duty payers who have found themselves in “extenuating circumstances”. But in my case it has declined to use its discretionary option to cancel the additional tax.

After various discussions with tax solicitors, my partner and I have swallowed the bitter pill of a large tax payment, but we still feel it is extremely unfair. I’ve just been through one of the most challenging times of my life and this £22,000 bill feels like a kick in the teeth. I’m contacting you as a last resort, hoping that HMRC still might change its mind.

– Anon

Dear Reader

AYour divorce took 33 months from the initial petition to the end of proceedings, which is far longer than the UK average of six months. You say your ex-wife made the process incredibly difficult for you, putting up every possible barrier to a swift separation. At this point it is worth me saying there are two sides to every story and as I haven’t heard from your wife, it wouldn’t be right for me to judge anyone’s behaviour.

I won’t go into details, but the years preceding the split sounded incredibly traumatic and eventually, in 2019, you say you felt forced out of the family home because of what you say was abusive and threatening behaviour, which led to the marriage being irrevocably damaged. Your life feels like a soap opera, you say, with HMRC being the final blow, which has hit you hard.

However, it hasn’t all been doom and gloom for you. After leaving your ex-wife you quickly began a relationship with another woman and, just three months after the divorce was petitioned, you bought your current home with her, paying the extra stamp duty.

After the house purchase you were banking on the divorce going through quickly so you could claim your additional stamp duty back. But, of course, this turned out to be a very bad bet. The court didn’t order your marital home to be placed on the market for nearly two years, and then once you had finally put it on the market, the marital home took over a year to sell, taking you just over the three-year deadline for the stamp duty refund on your new property.

Before I continue, I’d like to say that

I do sympathise with your reticence to pay this tax. In my view, stamp duty on primary homes is one of the most wretched taxes in modern society because it stifles the market. And the extra 3pc charge wasn’t designed to catch people like you – who are not seeking to own multiple homes for pleasure or profit – but going through a messy divorce and simply trying to make a new life in a new home.

However, HMRC has to draw the line somewhere to stop people abusing the rules and, here, it has decided the cutoff is three years. As you say, it does consider where taxpayers have “exceptional circumstances”, but these are incredibly rare and will be “well outside the norm”.

It said: “It is also likely that exceptional circumstances will affect large groups of people during the same time period, and not be a one-off occurrence only affecting one or both of the parties to a transaction.” You argue that part of the reason you didn’t sell your house within three years was because of Covid, but HMRC rejects this. It found the delay was caused by the divorce proceedings, which unfortunately cannot be considered as exceptional circumstances. And looking at your case, I have to say, I agree. I’m sorry, as I know this wasn’t the answer you were looking for. But, and I say this through gritted teeth, I do believe it is the right one according to HMRC’s rules.

An HMRC spokesman said: “We appreciate the taxpayer’s circumstances were difficult but the law doesn’t regard divorce as exceptional for the purposes of a stamp duty refund.”

I decided to double check with a divorce lawyer to find out whether anything further could be done on the legal side, and the resounding answer was no. They said your divorce lawyers should have seen this coming and negotiated half the extra stamp duty as part of your divorce settlement. But now that it’s finalised, there’s no going back to your ex-wife to ask her to pay. So, although I share your view that you have been forced to pay a tax that “isn’t fair”, I’m afraid I don’t make the rules.

Therefore, I’m sorry to say your only option here is to suck it up, count your blessings, and move on from this traumatic and expensive chapter of your life.

‘BA wrongly recorded me as a “no-show” and it cost me £900’ Dear Katie

QI took a flight to Madrid with British Airways and was offered a seat upgrade, which I accepted. We were directed to Iberia’s website to make the booking. The flight was fine, but then when it was time to come home we were shocked to be told at the airport that we had no booking. This was because our tickets had been cancelled. We had been recorded as “no-shows” for the outbound flight, we were told. This was despite BA emailing us the previous day, inviting me to check in.

As a result I was forced to spend almost £ 900 on repurchasing my party’s return flight tickets, and this was after an extremely stressful and lengthy international call.

Then, in a further contradictory move, BA awarded us loyalty points for the flight it claimed we were no-shows for.

I filed a complaint at the end of October but have had no contact from BA. There has been no apology, no contact and no refund.

– YM, via email

Dear Reader

ABritish Airways and Iberia, the Spanish airline, merged back in 2011, meaning their booking systems should be fully integrated, or at least able to talk to each other effectively. However, here there seems to have been a technical glitch when you upgraded your seats; the system seemingly booked you entirely new ones, which wrongly recorded you as not turning up for the flight at all.

I know you are frustrated that BA hasn’t elaborated on what went wrong within its system, and I share your feeling, as it declined to elaborate for me, too. You feel this issue with no-shows could pose a security threat, and I agree, as unsavoury characters could use it to look as if they hadn’t caught a flight when in fact they had.

Happily, however, it has now refunded your £ 900, which you are relieved about. A BA spokesman said: “We’re sorry for our customers’ experience and we know we’ve let them down. Our teams are in touch to apologise and resolve the matter.”