By Debbie Franklin, Director of Tax and property tax specialist For those of you who may be looking to invest in property before you have bought your main home, you might want to consider investing via a Limited Company to protect your first time buyer status for Stamp Duty Land Tax purposes and to avoid paying the extra 3% rates when buying your first home. The exemption from the extra 3% rates only applies for replacing your main residence, not buying the first one! Whilst you will pay the extra 3% rate on the first purchase by a company, in our experience such investment properties tend to be much lower value than the purchase on your first home.