I'm in a similar situation. My wife started a new job in September and, in November, they introduced a rental reimbursement scheme that we'd like to take advantage of. The employer will accept leases starting from employment commencement (September), however the lease we have is currently in my name, not hers. What's the best way to maximize our benefit at this point given we're most of the way through the tax year? The options I see here are:
1) As we can stamp a document up to 30 days after signing, we ask the landlord to sign a new lease starting just under 30 days ago (taking on the cost of stamp duty ourselves), this will allow us to at least claim Dec-Mar. The benefit is marginal, but better than nothing and we're ready for next year.
2) We could go back an extra month and pay 2x stamp duty penalty, I think we'd also come out slightly on top. Going back further, the 4x or 10x penalty is just too large to make it worth it.
3) On the IRD website it says that "A tenancy agreement has to be stamped within 30 days from the date of execution. The commencement date of the agreement has no bearing on the time limit." What does this mean? I assume it has forward-starting leases in mind, but could it be used for backward starting ones? Can we set the lease start date as last April, but sign the document today and pay regular stamp duty? (Sounds dodgy...)
4) There is also a comment on the IRD website the penalty can be reduced depending on circumstances if the disclosure is voluntary. Anybody have any experience with this? This would seem like a genuine reason for "delay" as we're clearly not trying to evade stamp duty or anything.
Otherwise, any other options for getting my wife's name onto the lease? Any considerations I've missed?