The Society of Licensed Conveyancers has become the latest body to call for Stamp Duty Land Tax to be scrapped.
It said that there are additional benefits to those propounded by the TaxPayers’Alliance, which give even greater reason for the Government to give serious consideration to the proposal.
Simon Law, chairman of SLC, said: “Stamp Duty Land Tax is perhaps the most inaccurately named tax in existence.
“There is no stamp involved, it is not a duty, and it is on assessed property values rather than land.
“In fact the only word that is in any way accurate is ‘tax’. In reality SDLT is a direct property transaction tax.”
SLC said that SDLT has become unwieldy and “ridiculously complicated” due to rushed legislation which appears to be having the opposite effect to which it was intended.
Conveyancing lawyers are now expected to help their clients navigate around the very poorly drafted regulations that govern the tax and this it said causes delays and at times causes transaction failure.
Law added: “It is ironic that the Government is engaged in a review to improve the home buying process when it has introduced legislation that actually makes the process more complicated and tortuous. It is an insult on top of this that HMRC looks to conveyancing lawyers to act as tax collectors.”
The Society said scrapping SDLT would not only create a more buoyant and vibrant property market, with a marked hike in investment and building of new homes, but also a much quicker and more straightforward home buying and selling process
Comments (3)
Can we also please have a campaign to end income tax and VAT as well. Whistling in the wind comes to mind or maybe something more liquid! Come on boys and girls. The government have at last organised sensible stamp duty rates without stupid uplifts at £250,000 and £500,000. The 3% is helpful to first time buyers and really doing little to stop buy to letters so please stop bleating.
How is the 3% stamp duty helping FTB’s?
The new stamp duty is very confusing, whilst the old structure was expensive it was easy to work out. The government need .to keep the SD cheap enough not to price FTB’s out of the market but less complicated for everyone so they know exactly how much they’re going to need to set aside.
Stamp duty is such a massive money spinner for the government it will never be abolished totally
Yes it is a little more difficult to work out the total, but there are quick n’ easy ‘SDLT calculator’ apps that agents and buyers can download to their phones/tablets for free.
The extra 3% SDLT was to discourage cash-rich property investor types from snapping everything up, which will theoretically allow FTBs get somewhat of a look in.