It's forecast we'll get a 7% stamp duty on properties costing more than £2 million today.
The problem with that is it perpetuates a bad tax and does not replace it with a better tax. That would be a land value tax.
This is a fudge, and a poor fudge and is pure political expediency when what is needed is real thinking about how we create a proper progressive tax system and one that reduces and not increases distortions.
But I guess we can't expect that of a purely political chancellor.
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well said Richard.
Take 2 identical houses both worth the same price in December 1982.
They both paid stamp duty that year.
One has changed hands every 5 years and this year will pay its 7th lot of stamp duty (1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012). the other house has stayed in the same ownership for 30 years and has only ever paid the one stamp duty.
Why penalise home mobility?
Don’t we want young families to buy bigger homes for the kids to have a bedroom each?
Don’t we want people to move closer to their work and reduce the need for new transport infrastructure expenditure, reduce congestion on our roads and public transport, cut pollution and Co2 emmissions and spend more time with their families?
Don’t we want elederly couples to downsize from 4-bedroom houses to 2 bed bungalows?
Well said Richard.
Take 2 identical houses both purchased in December 1982 for the same price.
They both paid stamp duty that year.
One has changed hands every 5 years and this year will pay its 7th lot of stamp duty (1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012). the other house has stayed in the same ownership for 30 years and has only ever paid the one stamp duty in 1982.
Why penalise home mobility?
Don’t we want young families to buy bigger homes for the kids to have a bedroom each?
Don’t we want people to move closer to their work and reduce the need for new transport infrastructure expenditure, reduce congestion on our roads and public transport, cut pollution and Co2 emmissions and spend more time with their families?
Don’t we want elederly couples to downsize from 4-bedroom houses to 2 bed bungalows?
There is no sense at all in increasing stamp duty. It bungs up the property market. When the volume of property trading is low, revenue drops. It promotes inefficiency in the utilisation of resources, and the land market is sticky-downwards at the best of times. It is exactly what a chancellor should not be doing.
The stamp duty charge should just reflect the Land Registry costs.