Two brothers, one house, two sets of taxes!
Billionaire property tycoon Christian Candy has finally emerged victorious after a near ten-year legal war with HMRC, securing a £2 million stamp duty refund — and an extra £270,000 in interest, courtesy of the taxpayer.
The dispute stems from Candy’s headline-grabbing 2012 purchase of Gordon House, a mufti-million-pound period mansion set on the Thames, with historic ties to the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Contracts were exchanged and hefty payments made, with Candy swiftly embarking on ambitious renovations — including a swimming pool and private IMAX cinema.
But Candy’s dreams of the ultimate trophy home hit an unexpected snag: HMRC deemed that the early building works counted as “substantial performance” of the contract, triggering a £1.92 million stamp duty charge.
The story took another twist in 2014. After investing £27.4 million into the property, Christian transferred Gordon House to his brother, Nick Candy (Treasurer of Reform UK). Nick completed the final payments, wrapped up the renovations, and dutifully paid another £1.92 million in stamp duty.
Christian Candy promptly sought a refund, arguing that HMRC had effectively double-charged for the same property. But his claim was initially rejected — on a technicality. Under HMRC rules, Candy had only 12 months from filing his tax return to request a refund, but he submitted his claim a year and a half later, so the Court of Appeal upheld HMRC’s decision.
Undeterred, Candy pressed on. And this week, in a dramatic turnaround, the judge ruled in his favour, as the law actually grants taxpayers four years to file such claims — not just 12 months. HMRC made comment that, ‘We’re disappointed with the tribunal’s decision and are carefully considering the judgment.’
Now whilst not, everyone can purchase property with this type of price tag, the events that took place show that ‘expert’ tax advice – especially in the SDLT sector can prove dividends. That is why SCA tax, offers a free preliminary service to help buyers see if too much stamp duty has been paid to HMRC in error.
SCA tax were in no way involved in the Candy & HMRC debacle, but they have over the years managed to help many property buying companies either lessen or get back tax from the HMRC, with the retrospective four-year period often being a fertile sector to investigate.
If you want to check that you have not overpaid monies on stamp duty, please use this LINK for a no obligation conversation with SCA tax who are specialists in this opaque and often misunderstood sector.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
Andrew Stanton Founder & Editor of 'PROPTECH-X' where his insights, connections, analysis and commentary on proptech and real estate are based on writing 1.3M words annually. Plus meeting 1,000 Proptech founders, critiquing 400 decks and having had 130 clients as CEO of 'PROPTECH-PR', a consultancy for Proptech founders seeking growth and exit strategies. He also acts as an advisory for major global real estate companies on sales, acquisitions, market positioning & operations. With 200K followers & readers, he is the 'Proptech Realestate Influencer.'
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
