Land Transaction Tax (LTT) refunds: unjustified enrichment
LTT refunds and unjustified enrichment
The WRA can refuse a tax repayment where the claimant has already passed the tax cost to somebody else. A repayment should correct an overpayment, not create a windfall.
- Check who ultimately bore the tax cost.
- Reimburse affected people in full, including interest.
- Meet the 90-day and follow-up 30-day deadlines.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
Land Transaction Tax (LTT) refunds: unjustified enrichment
A tax repayment is not always paid to the person who makes the claim. For Land Transaction Tax (LTT), rather than Stamp Duty Land Tax, the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) can refuse a repayment if you would keep money whose cost was really paid by somebody else.
What this rule is about
The point is simple: a repayment should put right an overpayment. It should not give someone a windfall.
That can matter where a business has added a tax cost to what customers pay. A later refund may duplicate that recovery.
Official guidance uses a landfill site operator and Landfill Disposals Tax as its example. This rule also sits in the Welsh tax system that covers LTT.
This is not usually the issue in an ordinary home purchase. Still, it matters whenever a person seeking money back did not ultimately carry the tax cost.
What the official source says
WRA guidance says it can reject a claim for repayment, or for an amount due to be removed, if that would unjustifiably enrich the claimant. Put simply, it blocks duplicate recovery.
- In assessing the claim, the WRA considers whether somebody other than the claimant bore the cost.
- It can consider whether the claimant would gain from a repayment.
- It can limit the refusal to part of the claim where only part creates that gain.
- Mistaken tax-rule losses are normally excluded.
- Proven quantified-loss compensation is excepted.
- Tax rules include relevant legislation, related secondary legislation and some WRA notices.
There is a route for a repayment where the claimant will pass the money on to the people who paid the cost. These are called reimbursement arrangements in the official source.
Those arrangements must meet set conditions. Before, or when, making the claim, the claimant must also give written promises to the WRA.
What this means in practice
If you have passed a tax cost on, a repayment claim may need more than proof that too much tax was paid. You may also need to show who paid the cost and how you will make sure they receive the money back.
Any repayment must include interest paid on the amount. No fee or renamed deduction is allowed.
- Pay the full reimbursement within 90 days after the WRA makes the repayment.
- Include any interest that the WRA pays with the repayment.
- Do not deduct a fee, charge or other amount.
- Pay by cash or cheque, or electronically if the customer agrees.
- Keep the required records about the claim and reimbursements.
- Provide those records if the WRA sends an information notice.
What happens if you cannot find everybody within 90 days? The source says you must send the unpaid part to the WRA within the next 30 days, without waiting for it to ask.
Guidance warns that a failure may lead to a penalty equal to 100% of the amount that should have been paid to the WRA. That is the part people must not leave until later.
How to analyse it
Start with the money trail, not just the tax calculation. The key question is who ended up out of pocket.
- Identify the exact amount you want repaid or removed.
- Check whether you paid that amount from your own funds.
- Check whether you recovered it from customers or another person.
- Work out who bore the cost in the end.
- Consider whether a repayment would leave you with money you did not lose.
- Identify any loss caused by a mistaken view of the tax rules.
- Calculate and support any quantified amount claimed for that loss.
- If reimbursement is needed, identify every person due money.
- Prepare the written, signed and dated undertakings in time.
- Plan how you will pay, record and prove each reimbursement.
You might think that a genuine overpayment ends the question. It does not. The WRA can still ask whether paying it back to you would be fair.
Example
Imagine a landfill operator pays too much Landfill Disposals Tax and then claims a repayment. Its customers had already paid charges that included the tax cost. If the operator simply keeps the WRA repayment, it may receive the same value twice: once from customers and once from the WRA.
Under the official guidance, the WRA can refuse the claim to that extent. Alternatively, the operator may use reimbursement arrangements, repay the affected customers in full, and give the required written promises and records.
The source does not give a separate LTT home-buying example. It would be unsafe to assume that the landfill example automatically decides an LTT claim.
Why this can be difficult in practice
Passing on costs rarely has one document. A price may reflect many things, including tax, overheads and profit. The answer can turn on contracts, invoices, pricing records and what actually happened.
Calling a payment a reimbursement is not enough. The conditions cover the full amount, interest, timing, payment method, records and the written undertakings.
- A price rise does not always prove that a tax cost was passed on.
- A customer list may be incomplete or out of date.
- Interest forms part of the amount to be passed on.
- A fee cannot be taken from the money due back.
- An electronic payment needs the customer’s agreement.
- Missing the 90-day deadline creates a further payment duty to the WRA.
- The source does not set out the full list of records required.
If you only remember one thing, make it this: a repayment claim may fail even where too much tax was paid, if someone else carried the cost and will not receive the benefit of the repayment.
Key takeaways
- The WRA can refuse a claim that would give the claimant an unfair windfall.
- Where another person paid the cost, reimbursement arrangements may be needed.
- Those arrangements have strict timing, payment, record and written-promise requirements.
Technical analysis
For advisers, and for anyone who wants to check the law behind this page. You do not need this section to understand the guidance above.
Legislation
- TCMA 2016 section 64 — rejecting claims that would unjustifiably enrich a claimant
- TCMA 2016 section 65 — working out enrichment where another person bore tax
- TCMA 2016 section 66 — reimbursement arrangements for tax passed on to others
- TCMA 2016 section 69 — keeping records for a tax repayment claim
- TCMA 2016 section 95 — complying with a WRA information notice
Official guidance
The pages below are the Welsh Revenue Authority’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how the Welsh Revenue Authority reads the legislation, and it is not binding on you, on a tribunal or on a court. Where guidance and the legislation differ, the legislation wins. the Welsh Revenue Authority can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
Where this is not settled
- The supplied source refers to specified records but does not list every record required.
- Whether a person has truly borne, or passed on, a tax cost will depend on the evidence and facts.
- The supplied statutory material does not include the currency notice requested in the brief. Current legislation and guidance should therefore be checked before relying on this page.
Evidence you would need
This kind of case is decided on the facts of the individual property. These are the records that usually settle it, and the ones an adviser would ask you for.
- Details of the amount claimed and any related interest
- Evidence showing who ultimately paid the tax cost
- Names and addresses of people already reimbursed or due reimbursement
- Proof of each reimbursement and its payment method
- Records requested by the WRA in any information notice
- The signed and dated written undertakings
Explore this with an AI
Readers often want to test their own situation. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It hands the model the actual legislation for this page rather than letting it answer from memory, and tells it to be explicit about what is uncertain. What comes back is information, not advice – check it against the links above.
I am researching Land Transaction Tax (LTT), the tax on property in Wales. It replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales on 1 April 2018, and SDLT does not apply in Wales. MY QUESTION Land Transaction Tax (LTT) refunds: unjustified enrichment [Replace this with your own situation: what you are buying, the price, the dates, who the buyer is, and what you plan to do with the property.] THE LAW THIS TURNS ON - TCMA 2016 section 64 - rejecting claims that would unjustifiably enrich a claimant https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/64 - TCMA 2016 section 65 - working out enrichment where another person bore tax https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/65 - TCMA 2016 section 66 - reimbursement arrangements for tax passed on to others https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/66 - TCMA 2016 section 69 - keeping records for a tax repayment claim https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/69 - TCMA 2016 section 95 - complying with a WRA information notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/95 Guidance page from the Welsh Revenue Authority on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.wales/tax-collection-and-management-wales-act-2016-claiming-refund-technical-guidance#6505 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. Guidance from the Welsh Revenue Authority is its view of the law, not the law, and does not bind a tribunal or a court. 2. Tell me what the rule actually requires, in plain English. 3. Tell me which facts decide the answer, and which facts would change it. 4. Tell me what evidence I would need to support the position. 5. Be explicit about anything unsettled or fact-sensitive. Do not guess. 6. Your training data has a cutoff and SDLT rates and reliefs change at fiscal events. Say so if you are not sure the law is current. POINTS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE UNCERTAIN ON THIS TOPIC - The supplied source refers to specified records but does not list every record required. - Whether a person has truly borne, or passed on, a tax cost will depend on the evidence and facts. - The supplied statutory material does not include the currency notice requested in the brief. Current legislation and guidance should therefore be checked before relying on this page. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 as it stood on 2025-11-17. The law may have changed since, and the rules that apply are those in force on the date of your transaction. The official guidance this page is based on is here.
This page was last updated on 4 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Land Transaction Tax (LTT) refunds: unjustified enrichment
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