As the FT notes this morning:
The government has won an important legal victory in its fight against stamp duty avoidance, in a blow to similar schemes used to dodge an estimated £170m of tax.
A tribunal has ruled against a company that used a rule, originally designed to prevent double taxation, to avoid £290,000 of stamp duty on a 2006 purchase of a business park in Stockton-on-Tees.
The victory against the misuse of “sub-sale” relief, which is frequently employed to avoid stamp duty, is seen by HM Revenue & Customs as a landmark case as it tries to confront what George Osborne has branded the “morally repugnant” culture of property tax avoidance.Sub-sale relief was originally devised as a way to exempt legitimate intermediaries, such as housebuilders, from paying stamp duty twice — first when they bought the land and again after selling the finished house.
Now of course a win has to be applauded: I'm always pleased by them.
But, let's also be clear that this was simply abuse of a law introduced with good intent by the tax avoidance industry and this result could have been achieved so much more easily if we'd had Michael Meacher's General Anti-Tax Avoidance Principle Bill.
Stamp Duty Land Tax is a stupid tax anyway. If people want or need to move why put obstacles in the way? An average second-rung-on-the-ladder home incurs c £10000 SDLT, deterring many families from moving to more suitable accommodation as their needs change.
LVT would replace all other property taxes and is loophole resistant.