Could postponing a marriage be considered tax avoidance?

[someone]

My girlfriend has been looking for a flat to buy for a considerable time after selling her house and moving in with me.

We'd given up waiting and are due to get married in about 8 weeks.

It's possible that a suitable flat is now available. From experience it's 50/50 (or less) that she could complete before our (booked) marriage.

The marriage is small, so the cost of cancelling would only be a few hundred pounds, as compared to around 15K extra stamp duty if she buys after we're married.

But could postponing the marriage (cancelling and rebooking) be classed as tax avoidance and so make her liable for the extra 15K anyway?

Alternatively, as she sold her main home less than three years ago, if we made her flat our main home after she bought it, would that also allow her to avoid the extra 3% or would marriage also cancel that route (she doesn't own another property but my understanding is that even if she did she currently wouldn't have to pay the extra 3% to buy her main home)

[bd6759]

Sounds like sensible planning rather than avoidance.

[someone]

Thanks. That's what I hoped. I know of people who have been about to get married, cancelled it and then got married later anyway so it does happen, even on short timescales. But I didn't know the scope of the anti avoidance laws.

[SteLacca]

The taxes acts haven't gotten around to dictating when you may, or may not get married............yet!