Speaking at the CML conference today Bennett assured delegates that the directive was clear that where buy-to-let was being done by trade or business, it would remain outside the scope of the directive. It does however mean that it would catch transactions such as parents buying properties for their children when they were going away to university.
Bennett said: “I can assure you that Treasury is fighting as hard as we are, lobbying to Europe to try and get buy-to-let out of scope.
“There are some amendments that have been put down by UK MEPs on this, one that will take buy-to-let out of scope completely and a second version which should allow member states to approve whether they apply the provisions in their country or not.
“We are struggling with this in Europe and we are not giving up, but I do have to say it is one of the areas where we are getting less traction on.”
