HMRC is set to update its guidance on the higher rate of Stamp Duty, which has been branded so confusing that it has caught out solicitors and estate agents.

Since the Government’s additional 3% Stamp Duty was applied to second homes in 2017, there have been more than 15,700 individuals wrongly paying the charge who were eligible for a refund, according to HMRC figures.

Last month, EYE reported how even an experienced estate agent nearly fell foul of the rules.

David Poole, a partner at Michael Poole estate and letting agents in Teesside, bought a property with his wife Emma.

The couple were moving out of rented accommodation and it never crossed their minds that they would have to pay the surcharge. Poole had sold an earlier home over ten years previously.

However, they were told that because Emma owned two buy-to-let properties, they would have to pay an extra £14,160.

He and his wife ended up paying almost £28,000 in Stamp Duty but David Poole continued to believe they should not have paid the surcharge and was eventually proved right.

Now HMRC has indicated that it will update its guidance.

A spokesman for HMRC told FTAdviser: “[We keep] all guidance under constant review, including taking legal developments into account.

“HMRC is working to update its guidance on the higher rates of stamp duty land tax.”

The news comes after the Law Society criticised a “lack of clarity” in the guidance.

Sarah Dwight, a member of the Law Society’s conveyancing and land law committee, said: “It is a very complex area and the guidance does not give conveyancing lawyers much clarity.

“HMRC seems to have thought the guidance it issued was going to be sufficient, but there are so many different types of scenarios that arise when people are seeking to buy and sell a property, that not everyone fitted into HMRC’s boxes.”