I believe to qualify as a first time buyer it should be the purchase of your first property either here or abroad, so it seems if you depended on this exemption to be relieved of stamp duty, then you were wrong to do so. As to whether there will be a come back...who knows? Assuming you wish to rectify the situation, I suppose you could contact the revenue and indicate you've made a mistake and offer to now pay the stamp duty. At best they will accept the correct stamp duty, at worst they will impose interest and penalties. For what its worth, I personally find them very helpful if approached in a 'hands up, sorry I got it wrong, but it wasnt deliberate, now can we sort it out ' situation. I do not believe they would be so helpful for someone deliberately evading tax.