End stamp duty now, Hammond is warned
STAMP duty is the most damaging tax in Britain and should be scrapped, a think tank urged last night.
The £13billion-a-year levy paid by house buyers “gums up” the housing market, traps people in unsuitable homes and jobs, and burdens the state with red tape, said the free-market Adam Smith Institute.
It urged Chancellor Philip Hammond to scrap the tax in next month’s Budget, and replace the lost revenue with a simpler and fairer system of property tax.
Sam Bowman, executive director of the institute, added: “Stamp duty is the worst tax we’ve got.
“The reason is that Britain’s productivity problem is in large part a mobility problem.
Dustbin
“People cannot move to where the best jobs for them are because the houses aren’t being built, and that’s made even worse by stamp duty keeping older people in family homes that are too large for them.
“Stamp duty is gumming up the housing market and keeping people trapped in the jobs that aren’t best for them.
“Scrapping it should be a no-brainer for a government looking for a bold, affordable way to take back control of the agenda in British politics.”
Report author Ben Southwood added: “Stamp duty has had its day and should be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
The tax is paid by buyers of private homes worth more than £125,000 and by purchasers of commercial properties sold for £150,000 or more.
The institute said the duty raised an estimated £12.9billion in 2016-17 but research suggested its damaging effects could have cost the economy as much as £10billion.