A subsale relief arrangement was ineffective even before a retrospective amendment to the relevant SDLT legislation, so HMRC’s enquiry closure notice into the related SDLT return was not invalid because the return was not ‘voluntary’ and nor was it issued out of time.

The appellant company implemented a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) ‘subsale relief’ scheme in relation to the acquisition of a London property on 14 June 2012, which was blocked by retrospective amendments (FA 2013, s 194). HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued a closure notice (stating SDLT of £294,000 was due) and a discovery assessment relating