stamp duty-how much do i pay?

hi all,
I purchased a building in december 2004. Due to financial difficulties i did not pay the stamp duty. I am now in a position to pay this bill and the fines.
the building cost 390,000 (including vat)
therefore the cost was 344,000 + 46000vat approx.
the building was divided into residential and commercial.
from the valuation i got off the auctioneer at the time he valued the building as follows:
250,000- overhead residential appartment
94,000- downstairs commercial shop.
My solicitor said i now owe 34000 plus fines..i think this is deffinetly wrong because at the time i taught it was only around 15k or 16k.
i am very worried now because i never allowed for this large amount of money.
any feedback would be appreciated.. thanks
pat

Moved from Mortgages and Buying and Selling Homes.

Said it before and ill say it once again - last person on earth to ask how much stamp duty costs is the solicitor. They will overcharge you and then promise to give back the change.

Plenty of poeple have told me im wrong on this forum, but you are another example. (they MAY be right though - a broken clock right twice/day and all that).

Just ring up the revenue - they wont even ask for your full details - they will simply give you the calculation you need to get this right yourself.

If you want to rant about solicitors then do so in Letting Off Steam. Personally I don't believe that most or all solicitors would be (a) underhand or (b) ignorant of the relevant rules in this context. Telling somebody to approach Revenue directly when they don't know what their liabilities are is poor advice in my opinion. Revenue do not provide a tax advisory/consultancy service and have been known to give out inaccurate information which could lead to costly filing/payment mistakes. If the original poster does not trust the solicitor's estimation of the tax liabilities (even after having them explained in detail) then s/he should get an accountant or tax advisor on the case.

yankinlk is right...i contacted the revenue and explained all my situation to them. I owe 15,616 + 8910 penelties...Thats a big differance to 34k+penalties.
. It is crazy that he expected me to give him that much money

Have you compared the two sets of calculations to see exactly how they arrive at such divergent results?

Clubman, apologies if I touched a nerve but what I wrote is certainly not a rant. My post achieved it's purpose - a little helpful advice.

The revenue is your freind. (not to say that solicitors cant be your freind too)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rant

yes..the solicitor got his figure this way...8% of 400,000= 32k plus another 2k fees for himself. It is like he pulled these figures out of a hat and expected me to pay up
but i only paid 390k for the property and this included vat. Also the property is divided into commercial and residential. I also have the origional valuation from the auctioneer to clarify the way the property is divided.
i also found the revenue very helpful. The girl i was talking to took me through every step and explained my position very clearly to me.
eventhough i am late in making a payment she did not get upset about it...instead she was trying to help me as much as possible.
from now on i will always be ringing the revenue to confirm if any of my future payments are correct.
it dosnt cost anything to talk to them and you dont have to tell them who you are if you dont want to

thanks for that patgar, glad it worked out. Any chance you can include the formula for calculating the penalty - might be helpfull too.