The Daily Telegraph has this morning launched a campaign calling on Chancellor Phillip Hammond to slash stamp duty.
The newspaper - a long-time critic of George Osborne, the former Chancellor whose reforms of stamp duty were announced two years ago - says in a front-page lead this morning that the Exchequer has received £370m less in stamp duty income than the £700m it anticipated as a result of the reforms.
The Telegraph also claims the changes have lost the wider economy around £1 billion because of reduced expenditure thanks to a fall in the number of transactions.
“Today The Daily Telegraph launches a campaign calling on Mr Hammond, the current Chancellor, to address the issue in next week’s Autumn Statement” says the newspaper.
The newspaper dedicates its argument largely to the market for homes above £1m.
It says that while Osborne wanted to stop stamp duty distorting the market, his reforms inadvertantly had that very effect for most expensive homes.
“Raising stamp duty by just one per cent on homes worth between £1m and £2m led to an eight per cent decline in transactions. This is far higher than ... forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which said the figure would be 2.8 per cent” claims the newspaper.
It then cites business consultancy Oxford Economics as saying that as a result of the stamp duty reforms, some 1,950 fewer properties worth £1m or more were sold in 2015 compared to expectations.
The Telegraph also dedicates an editorial to the subject.
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If stamp duty remains as it is it will permanently damage the market,not just at the top end. To function healthily a market needs to flow freely from top to bottom and from bottom to top. By placing such a strong restriction at the top end you interfere with that free flow creating inevitable and unwelcome distortions. Let's hope Mr Hammond reads The Telegraph!
Trust the Telegraph to jump on the bandwagon on the £1million plus properties instead of the farcical additional 3% duty which has done nothing to improve housing shortage and has had the effect of increasing private rents where landlords are seeking to recover the additional SDLT they have had to pay
Increasing private rents despite all the mortgage rate cuts?
This campaign is nothing to do with BTL taxes - its a shame no-one (as usual) is talking about the EXTRA tax Landlords with mortgages will have to pay from 2017. The 3% BTL Stamp Duty pails into insignificance!
Landlord Tip: if you want a property, ask the seller for 3% discount - there you go.
I think any sane person is happy with the partial reduction in tax relied landlords get. It would of probably been more simple and healthier to ban interest only from buy to let to give first time buyers an even playing field. However something had to be done.
We have to admit there was a problem with money laundering and house cash boxes at the top end of the market. There was issues with multi home owners buying up an ever smaller supply of housing. Yes maybe the tax receipts have dropped a bit but isn't that worth it to have a more stable housing?
Sellers in the £1m+, 2nd home market - "3% reduction? don't be silly... I have a record low mortgage and absolutley no pressure to sell. Why would I sell at a reduced level and my dear boy, what on earth would I do with money anyway?"
Anyone wish we had voted labour and taken on the less cumbersome and in hindsight, more relaistic mansion tax?! At least sales volumes would still be there...
"The newspaper dedicates its argument largely to the market for homes above £1m."
I can see that generating a whole heap of sympathy from the wider public at large. Not.
No vested interests from the Telegraph here. Oh no, siree.
Far more noble and important campaigns to focus on than cutting stamp duty for £1m-plus homes. Have the Telegraph not seen what has been happening recently? When you become so out of touch and obsessed by the super-rich elite, things like Trump and Brexit happen - where easy solutions to complex problems are offered and populism is deemed more important than policy.
As far as I can see, it's the cuts to mortgage interest tax relief that will be far more damaging to landlords than the extra stamp duty surcharge.
In some cases the stamp duty - and who it impacts - is ridiculous, but I doubt buy-to-letters or owners of homes worth more than £1m will be receiving too much sympathy from people who are paying record rents or struggling badly to get onto the housing ladder.
Prior to 1988 there was no significant private rental market and people complained, its introduction was delayed by a property recession and a mortgage crisis which ended in 1995 and people complained. Once the new PRS became established people complained and now it is being tinkered with people are complain, anyone besides me notice a common theme?
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