Higher Stamp Duty Hits 25% Of Buyers: Thousands Forced To Pay More Than £7,500 When Buying A Home

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385169/Higher-stamp-duty-hits-25-buyers-Thousands-forced-pay-7-500-buying-home.html

First-time buyers are losing out on more than £7,500 when they move

Stamp Out Stamp Duty campaign is calling for a cut in the ‘punitive’ levy,

This raised £4billion for the Treasury in 2012/13 some £3.6billion of which was collected at rates of 3 per cent or more

More than a quarter of home buyers are now paying stamp duty at the higher rates of 3 per cent or more, research has found.

Hundreds of thousands of first-time buyers and hardworking families are losing out to the tune of more than £7,500 when they move home, the TaxPayers’ Alliance study found.

The pressure group launched a Stamp Out Stamp Duty campaign calling for a cut in the ‘punitive’ levy, which raised £4billion for the Treasury in 2012/13 - some £3.6billion of which was collected at rates of 3 per cent or more.

Clearly it's time to cut the duty, god forbid house prices are allowed to collect. I wonder how many Taxpayer Alliance members have BTL or live in a expensive house meaning they are wealthy?

[iamnumerate]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385169/Higher-stamp-duty-hits-25-buyers-Thousands-forced-pay-7-500-buying-home.html

Clearly it's time to cut the duty, god forbid house prices are allowed to collect. I wonder how many Taxpayer Alliance members have BTL or live in a expensive house meaning they are wealthy?

Stamp duty is good for BTL owners as it makes harder for renters to buy a house and for new BTL's to enter the market.

By the way you only pay stamp duty if you move house, fair enough that people who live in expensive houses pay tax on them. However why should the tax depend on the amount you move? Some people might live in an expensive house for 40 years others might move 4+ times in that time, why should they pay more?

BTW I have no problems with council tax or even better LVT.

[interestrateripoff]

Millions caught in stamp duty trap as house prices soar

MILLIONS of buyers are falling into a tax trap and being forced to pay thousands of pounds on top of the cost of a new home, research shows.

And it's in the Express as well.

[LiveinHope]

How about the more your property has increased in value between purchases above CPI, the higher the stamp duty rate you pay on the price of the next property you buy - you could offset increases in value due to improvements etc

Edited August 6, 2013 by LiveinHope

[The Masked Tulip]

Osborne will see this as a good thing.

[worried1]

Stamp duty is a bit excessive when you consider only a few years ago it was 1% on properties over £60k and that was when £60k was probably more than the national average house price.

I am not sure how we have got to a stage where the exemption is massively under the average house price and the % charged climbs very steeply even on ordinary houses.

I guess in the past governments might have argued they were increasing the tax to keep the housing market under control, but this governments policies all do completely the opposite.

[goldbug9999]

How about the more your property has increased in value between purchases above CPI, the higher the stamp duty rate you pay on the price of the next property you buy - you could offset increases in value due to improvements etc

Removing the main residence capital gains tax exemption would achieve the same effect. Doing this together with scrapping stamp duty would be the best bet IMO - would punish speculators without reducing labour mobility.

Edited August 6, 2013 by goldbug9999

[pjw]

Well the stamp duty is the only tax that gets the homeowners in the UK today - so, in the absence of an LVT, I'd keep the stamp duty. but far better to have an LVT. Because the Stamp Duty is anti-transactional and stops people moving, and the point of property taxes should not be to inhibit transactions, but to tax possession of land.

[Parkwell]

What purpose does stamp duty serve? As far as I can see it's merely another sales tax, designed to optimise the amount of money it extracts whilst not pissing off too many people.

[winkie]

Stamp duty gets added to the cost of the property.....stamp duty is part and parcel of HPI.

[MrPin]

What purpose does stamp duty serve? As far as I can see it's merely another sales tax, designed to optimise the amount of money it extracts whilst not pissing off too many people.

It encourages people not to "move around"! I don't like it!

[pjw]

Stamp duty gets added to the cost of the property.....stamp duty is part and parcel of HPI.

I'm not sure - near the limits £125000 and £250000 it may discourage increases. At least if a house is advertised at £260K, you can say to the owner that you are not paying the higher stamp duty, so the price must come down below £250K.

[Executive Sadman]

All i ask is for property to be taxed exactly the same as every other asset. 0.5% or 1% stamp duty, CGT on gains over £10k, and treated no differently to other investments and cash when you want benefits.

[RichB]

I'm not sure - near the limits £125000 and £250000 it may discourage increases. At least if a house is advertised at £260K, you can say to the owner that you are not paying the higher stamp duty, so the price must come down below £250K.

Stamp is fine. It serves to tell the buyer they are being a bit flash shelling out 5x national average salary or 10x for an overly fabulous luxury home.

Get the prices into correct parameters and stamp ceases to be a concern.

[BalancedBear]

I think they are both problems. Lower stamp duty would facilitate more efficient allocation of housing. Many people these days will not move simply because the stamp duty costs too much. What we need is stricter (normal) lending, removal of government props, relaxation of some areas of the planning system, the construction of more council housing and the removal of the right to buy.

[Ah-so]

With house prices being what they are, especially in the SE the 3% band is almost the default rate as there are so few properties below it. It is a very regressive tax because it applies to the entire value of the transaction.