Slash stamp duty ‘for home sale boost’
STAMP duty should be cut in a radical shake-up of the tax system to help the housing market, campaigners say.
The annual £6.1billion duty is an “unfair double tax” and should be abolished eventually, the TaxPayers’ Alliance says.
The hefty burden, levied on the value of a property, stops young people buying a home and starting a family, the Alliance says in a report published today.
It also discourages elderly people from downsizing and makes it harder for people to move for new jobs.
Significantly cutting duty on residential property – which accounted for just 0.8 per cent of tax intake in 2011-12 – would increase the number of houses being bought and sold.
Alliance boss Matthew Sinclair said: “The Government could cut Stamp Duty with a limited impact on the amount of money going into Treasury coffers.”