Archive for the 'Tax' Category

In his budget this year, Gordon Brown has made just a meagre increase to the bands for Stamp Duty. Despite large increases in property prices over the last few years, this year only the lowest band was increased - from £120,000 to £125,000.

This is estimated to cost Mr Brown around £40m in less tax income in the next year.

The remaining tax bands of 3% from £250,000 to £500,000 and 4% for over £500,000 remain unchanged.

Such high levels of taxation for owning your own home are beginning to cause a shift in the way people move up the property ladder. Instead of steadily moving up, paying Stamp Duty at each step, the high cost of the tax is now causing people to deliberately take large leaps up the ladder, thus avoiding tax on the steps they 'leap over'.

For more information on Stamp Duty, see our Stamp Duty page in the Buying Section.