HMRC has blamed market conditions and the first full year first-time buyer Stamp Duty exemption for a fall in receipts for the property tax.
Figures from the taxman show Stamp Duty receipts fell by 5.2% annually in 2018-19 to just under £14bn.
HMRC said: “Receipts in 2016-17 increased by 10.4% due to the introduction of higher duty rates on additional dwellings in April 2016 and which continued through 2017-18.
“In November 2017, the first-time buyer’s relief came into effect.
“In 2018-19 receipts fell by a further 5.2% due to a combination of market uncertainties and a full year of first-time buyer’s relief claims.”
HMRC added that its monthly data hasn’t seen a peak in receipts since December 2016, the year that the additional Stamp Duty rate was introduced.
When will HMRC stop delivering spurious reasons for stamp duty receipt reduction and accept that if they reduced it, it would increase the volume of house sales and swell their coffers.
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Indeed – Typhoon
Sooner or later the Government may realise that the reason for the downturn in activity in not just down to market conditions, but it is the application of the higher rates of SDLT under George Osborne that urgently need a review to boost a sector that has been dis-proportionately penalised.
A young family in a 3 bed home in a London suburb may find it can be sold for £1,1m quite readily. But if their need is for a larger 4 bed home in the same area to accommodate their growing family, costing say £1.4m, they not only have to save for the £300k differential, but also the £83,750 Stamp Duty that will add 28% to the cost of moving.
So more homeowners now stay put, or seek to extend their homes rather than face this tax on moving. Thatcher wanted the country to be a home owning democracy and did much to raise the level of home ownership in this country. It seems bizarre that a Tory administration should shoot itself in the foot so effectively with Stamp Duty, serving to reduce the tax take rather than increase it.
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They are simply in total denial and as such causing heartache for many who really need to move, and who could afford (just) to do it, if they were not brdened by such high taxes. And when you talk of that number £83,700, to pay that they have to earn almost £160k before tax. Not to mention the vast on every bill associated with moving home.
It’s a wonder anyone does it. But for sure more would if stamp duty was less.
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A couple of years ago, I was talking to someone who had been an advisr to G Osborne – we touched on the subject of the high level of Stamp Duty.
He said that “the money is rolling in” (his words). I wonder how much the tax take has increased (or not) since they brought in the new levels of Stamp Duty.
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