Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013

The Tax Authority

Section 54 – The Tax Authority

141. Section 54 defines, for the purposes of the Act, the “Tax Authority” as the Scottish Ministers, although in practice, the tax authority is expected to be a new body, Revenue Scotland. The Tax Authority is responsible for the collection and management of LBTT (see section 1(3)) and accordingly returns must be made to the Tax Authority (see section 29) and tax must be paid to the Tax Authority (see section 40).

Section 55 – Delegation of functions to Keeper

142. Section 55 allows for the delegation of Tax Authority functions to the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland.

Section 56 – Review and appeal

143. Section 56 confers a power on the Scottish Ministers to make provision by regulations for the review and appeal of Tax Authority decisions.

Section 57 – Linked transactions

144. Section 58 defines “linked transactions”. The section provides that linked transactions can be reported on a single return and imports the rules relating to joint buyers (section 48) if linked transactions with joint buyers are reported on a single return.

145. Defined terms used in this section:

“connected persons”

section 58

Example: Linked transactions A property investor agrees to buy three new houses from a builder. The builder offers a special price for the houses because the investor agrees in advance to buy three. It is agreed that the buyer will pay £200,000 for each house once it is complete. The purchases take place in January 2017, February 2017 and March 2018. The three transactions are linked transactions because they are between the same buyer and seller and form part of a single arrangement. (The length of time between transactions does not in itself affect whether the transactions are linked.) Separate land transaction returns will be required under section 29 in relation to each transaction because they do not take place on the same date and further returns may be required under section 34 in relation to earlier transactions. See section 26 for the calculation of the amount of tax due.