A couple have been taxed £48,450 after unsuccessfully claiming they should pay less stamp duty because they had a sheep field on their property.
Ian Sinclair and Diana Chilvers bought their Grade II listed property in Sussex for £1.8m in 2024. The house included a one-acre field which had been used by a local farmer to graze sheep.
“Mixed-use” properties – such as houses attached to shops or farmland – qualify for non-residential rates of stamp duty because they are taxed at commercial rates. These are lower than normal residential rates, potentially knocking thousands off a homeowner’s stamp duty bill.
Mr Sinclair and Ms Chilvers paid £80,000 in stamp duty on the grounds the property counted as mixed-use.
But in 2025, HMRC chased the couple for an extra £48,450. The tax office claimed the property did not meet the definition because the sheep grazing in the field was “intermittent” and counted as “maintenance”.
The couple made an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, arguing the field was in active agricultural use.
