Could anyone answer these two queries for me please?
We are trying to buy a piece of land to move our business (at the moment we are only renting and we're desperate to move). The land is being offered at a good price but the landowner is a shady character. So we asked a friend to do the 'talking' - i.e. it was he who was buying the land and not us. He has agreed to sell to our 'friend', but wants 20k over the original selling price. We agreed to this, through our friend, but now he has come back and wants three quarters of it in 'cash'. We're not happy with this and want all of it to go through our books as we want everything above board on our side but we're afraid that he won't do this. My query is 1) if we give him the three quarters in cash but put the full amount through our books (therefore we will pay stamp duty on the total amount) how, when the contracts are drawn up, do we avoid putting the full amount on the contract (it's his problem then for not declaring) and 2) can we put our friends name on the contract and change it at a later stage (will this mean we incur further charges) or could we put our names on the 2nd page of the contract and not disclose this to the vendor at the time of him signing?
We are trying to buy a piece of land to move our business (at the moment we are only renting and we're desperate to move). The land is being offered at a good price but the landowner is a shady character. So we asked a friend to do the 'talking' - i.e. it was he who was buying the land and not us. He has agreed to sell to our 'friend', but wants 20k over the original selling price. We agreed to this, through our friend, but now he has come back and wants three quarters of it in 'cash'. We're not happy with this and want all of it to go through our books as we want everything above board on our side but we're afraid that he won't do this. My query is 1) if we give him the three quarters in cash but put the full amount through our books (therefore we will pay stamp duty on the total amount) how, when the contracts are drawn up, do we avoid putting the full amount on the contract (it's his problem then for not declaring) and 2) can we put our friends name on the contract and change it at a later stage (will this mean we incur further charges) or could we put our names on the 2nd page of the contract and not disclose this to the vendor at the time of him signing?