Agent Provocateur 14th Dec
Why is the property market in London so constipated? Definitely not the
least of the reasons is the great Labour Stamp Duty swindle, well, not
so much swindle as sleep walk. Allow me to elucidate.
We all know dear old Gordon thought he’d spotted a good way of clobbering the middle classes by putting up Stamp Duty. Several years later, the situation is like this. Moving house, or rather the exorbitant cost of doing so, is now the preferred topic of conversation at smart dinner parties, which means it really must be serious.
If your house is worth over £500k, and a lot of influential owners’ are, it now costs c. 8% of the entire value of your gaff to move. Even if your house is worth £250k - £500k it’s still an outrageous 6-7%, and the majority of this is Stamp Duty Land Tax.
Every time we move we buy carpets, curtains, kitchen kit and probably new beds, sofas etc on which the Revenue would take huge chunks of VAT and lots of jobs safeguarded. Problem is no one is moving, partly why we’ve been seeing some steep price rises.
Gordon probably doesn’t mind that much as high house prices carry a feel good factor. Problem is that these non movers are employing tens of thousands of Poles and Eastern Europeans to build basements, side extensions and lofts. These workers are the types who most likely send the majority of their earnings home and live cheaply.
So well done then Gordon, you’re missing out on all that VAT revenue that would help all of us, no one’s moving, and those workers that I’m pretty sure we’re supporting to some extent on benefits are sending most of their money home and not benefiting anybody in the UK at all, great. Transactional volumes are undergoing a seismic shift downwards so the revenue must be kicking themselves that the SDLT take is plummeting and will most likely continue to.
I asked a high up contact at Tory central office if they’d make changes in Stamp Duty to restore the status quo and was assured it was on the agenda. For all our sakes I hope it is and that this absurd Tax is changed as soon as possible.
We all know dear old Gordon thought he’d spotted a good way of clobbering the middle classes by putting up Stamp Duty. Several years later, the situation is like this. Moving house, or rather the exorbitant cost of doing so, is now the preferred topic of conversation at smart dinner parties, which means it really must be serious.
If your house is worth over £500k, and a lot of influential owners’ are, it now costs c. 8% of the entire value of your gaff to move. Even if your house is worth £250k - £500k it’s still an outrageous 6-7%, and the majority of this is Stamp Duty Land Tax.
Every time we move we buy carpets, curtains, kitchen kit and probably new beds, sofas etc on which the Revenue would take huge chunks of VAT and lots of jobs safeguarded. Problem is no one is moving, partly why we’ve been seeing some steep price rises.
Gordon probably doesn’t mind that much as high house prices carry a feel good factor. Problem is that these non movers are employing tens of thousands of Poles and Eastern Europeans to build basements, side extensions and lofts. These workers are the types who most likely send the majority of their earnings home and live cheaply.
So well done then Gordon, you’re missing out on all that VAT revenue that would help all of us, no one’s moving, and those workers that I’m pretty sure we’re supporting to some extent on benefits are sending most of their money home and not benefiting anybody in the UK at all, great. Transactional volumes are undergoing a seismic shift downwards so the revenue must be kicking themselves that the SDLT take is plummeting and will most likely continue to.
I asked a high up contact at Tory central office if they’d make changes in Stamp Duty to restore the status quo and was assured it was on the agenda. For all our sakes I hope it is and that this absurd Tax is changed as soon as possible.