SDLTM00270 - Scope: What is chargeable: Land transactions: Meaning of acquisition FA03/S43

An acquisition can take the form of the creation, surrender, release or variation of a chargeable interest.

Exceptions from a grant and reservations out of a grant, for example the reservation of an easement, are not themselves land transactions for SDLT purposes. This is notwithstanding the fact that in conveyancing theory a reservation operates by way of re-grant.

It follows that the presence of an exception or reservation does not of itself mean that there is an exchange. See SDLTM01410 for further details on exchanges.

By contrast, where a sale of land is wholly or partly in consideration of a leaseback of all or part of the land, the sale and the leaseback are distinct transactions and there is an exchange. See SDLTM16040 on the specific treatment of sale and leaseback transactions

Chargeable interest is defined at SDLTM00280.