ID GSTZeroratingDwellings 2008 sl

							GST zero rating for dwellings.

Schedule 6, paragraphs 1 & 2, GST Law 2007.

The wording of the Law as it currently stands envisages that the recipient of a supply of the freehold or
leasehold of a dwelling, zero rated for GST under the provisions above, will occupy the dwelling. The
consequence of this is that sales or leases of dwellings in the following circumstances may be seen as
falling outside zero rating, thus attracting a charge at the standard rate, 3%:

    •   purchase for ‘buy to let’;
    •   lease for ‘let to let’;
    •   sales of housing stock between landlords,

as in each case the recipient of the supply will not themselves reside in the dwelling.

With immediate effect and pending a change in the wording of the Law to clarify the intention to relieve the
sale or let of dwellings of a charge to GST the GST Team construe the Law as meaning that any sale or
lease of a dwelling, as defined, falls within the scope of zero rating, irrespective of whether the parties to the
transaction have or will reside in the dwelling. Note that this does not extend to transactions effected by
share transfer, which are exempt from GST, or to the excepted items in paragraph 1(3)(c) and (d) to
Schedule 6.

In any cases of doubt please contact the GST Team as below.

Tel: 01534 440555
Email: gst@gov.je


GST Team
Income Tax Office
Cyril Le Marquand House
St.Helier JE4 8PF