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Boris Johnson lands another Stamp Duty bombshell

The Tory leadership hopeful says he is to consider switching the duty from buyers to sellers if he becomes Prime Minister.

Nigel Lewis

boris johnson stamp duty

Boris Johnson is to consider switching stamp duty from the buyer to the seller if he becomes prime minister, it has been revealed, an idea first proposed to him by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) last year but now being re-examined during his premiership bid.

Johnson met with representatives from the AAT last week and had further discussions with them about the radical taxation proposal, and asked for more supporting information, which has now been provided.

The AAT claims that switching who pays stamp duty would save the exchequer £700m a year by eliminating the need to subsidise first time buyers by exempting them from purchases under £300,000 and only charging them 5% on the rest up to £500,000, as is currently the case.

stamp duty“The AAT is naturally pleased that Boris has agreed to look at our long-standing proposal to switch Stamp Duty liability from the buyer to the seller,” says its Head of Public Policy, Phil Hall (left).

“It will also protect the £9 billion of revenue stamp duty generates as it will still be paid in full, simply by different people.”

Hall also claims it will save those moving up the property ladder money because they will pay tax on the lower-priced home they are selling, rather than the usually higher-priced property they are buying.

These proposed changes come hot on the heels of Johnson’s promise to cut stamp duty for all house sales under £500,000, and cut it for the highest value homes from the current 12% (charge on a property’s sales value over £1.5 million) to 7%.

July 16, 2019

2 comments

  1. Whilst you are correct in saying tax is tax, we all know that this will mean a hike in vendor costs and could be restrictive for some sectors of the community, especially the elderly scaling down with no onward chain – they will have already paid stamp duty on their purchase… now stamp duty on their sale, surely that is morally wrong?

    Also, the second home/investment and buy to let markets are dead – don’t they need a boost? Boris should be more concerned about freeing the market up again by reducing double stamp duty. Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit has well and truly had that quashed. He is more like a labour candidate than Conservative !

  2. When will the fools realise that tax is tax and it matters not who pays it, just the level. The effect is the same, the market determines the house price, the government the proportion of tax and who pays the bill makes no difference. They should spend more time studying the Laffer effect and slash the tax.

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