Putting in a direct offer to vendor-help needed

ClubMan said:
Well, I wouldn't depend on an EA for authoritative or independent tax advice. I still believe that this approach to mitigating SD costs is not kosher. Perhaps one of the tax experts can (probably for the 100th time) clarify?
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Agree with ClubMan - you're only fooling yourself with something like that. The pain of SD now is better than the pain of SD with interest, penalties etc...

mf1 said:
Altogether just not worth it.
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Agree with mf1.
 
mf1 said:
"Thing is we were not getting any contracts, we were just saving on stamp duty. "

I love it - had you gone ahead with your deal, you would have been defrauding Revenue, engaging in tax evasion and leaving yourself open to penalties and charges.
mf
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No need to try and be smart!. Point is we DIDN'T go through with it in the end. I was too worried about it coming back to haunt us anyway plus the fact I didn't really like where the house was anyway.

I also think alot of people need to wake up, do you honestly think this sort of thing has not being going for years?. Seriously, on TWO occasions we were told by Estate Agents that we could do a similar thing to avoid paying stamp duty and we didn't bother going along with it. I have yet to hear of anyone being caught either.

OP, walk away, eventhough you love this house god only knows that offer could be a load of rubbish (EA's ) so hold on and something else in your price range will come up, alot of changes happening in house prices at the moment so it might be wiser to hold off and pay the purchase price you can afford.

Best of luck.
 
Mag2006 said:
No need to try and be smart!
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I suspect that mf1 was just expressing frustration rather than trying to be smart. This misconception keeps cropping up and some people still insist on justifying it even in the face of what is most likely authoritative evidence to the contrary.
I also think alot of people need to wake up, do you honestly think this sort of thing has not being going for years?
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Well - as mentioned above, Revenue are waking up to this or related suspect practices.
Seriously, on TWO occasions we were told by Estate Agents that we could do a similar thing to avoid paying stamp duty and we didn't bother going along with it.
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As I said - don't dependen on an EA or anybody else with a vested interest in selling something to or for you for independent, professional advice on the tax and other financial issues involved.
I have yet to hear of anyone being caught either.
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Revenue have all the time in the world to catch tax evaders out.
Sensible advice.
 
The point is that 200 estate agents would more than likely tell you it is a good idea if it gets them a sale.
 
If you had proof that an EA told you to do this - what could be done? I assume you could sue them for any financial loss incurred. Is there anything else (report to Revenue?).
 

I apologise, my mistake. In our case, the stamp duty saving happened, but it is rather small (7% of €5k if I remember correctly). The rate band was not an issue. I thought it could be in this case.

Sorry 'bout that,
Buddyboy
 
Newby said:
If you had proof that an EA told you to do this - what could be done? I assume you could sue them for any financial loss incurred. Is there anything else (report to Revenue?).
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I was thinking of that at the time, if I was really nasty and recorded the phonecalls when it was sugggested to me I suppose I could have reported them for misconduct. The first time it was said to me I nearly fell over with shock, didn't think for a minute it was legal and we did walk away. The second time I actually burst out laughing when it was mentioned like it was "the norm", think that was the biggest shock I got.

Also, just wanted to add 3% of €320k is €9,600..not really that bad if you have been saving, if you really want that house you could up the offer to €325k...SD is €9,750 so you could think of it that way. It's all about affordability and doing the right thing in the end. Do you really want it coming back and biting you on the rearend bigtime for the sake of €5k under the table...seriously think about it!.
 
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Newby said:
If you had proof that an EA told you to do this - what could be done? I assume you could sue them for any financial loss incurred. Is there anything else (report to Revenue?).
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Sue them on what basis? Does a duty of care exist? You could report them I'm sure, but I don't think you could sue-their job is to sell the property for the vendor-I don't think they are obliged to give the buyer tax advice.
 
CCOVICH said:
Sue them on what basis? Does a duty of care exist? You could report them I'm sure, but I don't think you could sue-their job is to sell the property for the vendor-I don't think they are obliged to give the buyer tax advice.
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No idea - not a solicitor. Surely though they are not allowed to mislead a buyer like that? From a tax perspective there's law covering the facilitation of tax evasion... It just seems a little unfair that they can say these things to buyers.

Is there anything on the sale of goods and services side??
 
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