I am looking at a case where a husband and wife own properties separately. The husband owns the main residence (family home) and also a let property in his sole name. The wife owns another house that was her main residence but has more recently been let out. The wife plans to sell her let property and buy the new family home again in her sole name. The husband will retain his properties in his own name and rent out the current main residence. I'm almost certain the surcharge will apply to the purchase of the new property by the wife in her sole name, but I would feel happier to have it confirmed.

Arthur Weller replies:
I presume you are talking about the extra 3% stamp duty land tax (SDLT) charge. If you look at www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/570876/SDLT_Higher_rates_for_additional_properties.pdf, section 3.19A on page 11, you can see that if you are purchasing before 26 November 2018, and this purchase replaces a previous main residence, even if it was not used as a main residence in the preceding three years (as opposed to paragraph 3.20), and you have not purchased another main residence in the interim, then you do not pay the extra 3% SDLT. This is the case even though there are other buy-to-let properties that are owned - see Q&A 12 on page 28 there.