The government haul from Stamp Duty Land Tax has fallen by more than at any previous point in the last decade.
Total receipts, including from commercial property, went down by 5% to £15,560m in the 2018/2019 financial year, but HMRC said that if the effects of the first-time buyers’ relief and devolution to Wales were discounted, the fall would have been under 2%. The decrease also reflected a drop in transactions which HMRC put at 8% over the year.
SDLT receipts in England were £11,840m, down £715m (6%) from the previous financial year. The decrease in Northern Ireland was also 6%, resulting in receipts of £80m.
London accounted for the most SDLT revenue – £4,545m, which was 38% of the total.
Total residential SDLT receipts decreased by 10% (£905m) to £8,370m, with residential transactions standing at slightly over 1m.
Non-residential receipts also fell, by 2%.
Transactions where buyers had to pay the 3% surcharge amounted to 230,600 in number, a decrease of 9% from the previous year, bringing in £3,810m, down 6%.
There were 218,900 first-time buyer transactions where there was relief from Stamp Duty. These buyers saved an estimated £521m in what was the first full tax year of the relief.
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