stamp duty. any legitimate ways to avoid it?

zygurat789

The_White_Horse wrote: »

but so would charging the seller on their gain. also at least they will have the money to pay the tax more readily. if they bought a house for £50k and sell it for £250k, then they should be taxed on the £200k gain, at say, 5% so pay 10k in tax. they then keep 240k for themselves.

meanwhile, someone who bought the house in 2007 for 280k and is selling now for £260k pays no tax as they made no gain.

much fairer.

I have no objection to stamp duty on BTL properties or second homes. It should just not apply to a main residence.

But this would increase prices

The_White_Horse

zygurat789 wrote: »

But this would increase prices

why? the bigger the gain, the more tax you have to pay.

The_White_Horse

ILW wrote: »

OK - just drop the price to below the SD level.

the buyer pays the tax. how can i drop the price?????

"hi, can I buy your £600k house for £125k please so I don't have to pay stamp duty?"

"yes, no problem, why didn't you say".

antrobus

The_White_Horse wrote: »

but so would charging the seller on their gain.....

Wouldn't it be simpler just to change the law so that the seller paid the stamp duty, rather than the buyer? Would that make you happy?

grey_gym_sock

it makes no difference whether buyer or seller pays stamp duty. if the seller paid it, prices would increase slightly to compensate, so we'd be back exactly where we were. i.e. instead of buyer paying £200k to seller + £2k stamp duty, they'd pay £202k to seller, who'd then pay £2k stamp duty.

it would certainly be different to make PPRs exempt from stamp duty but remove their exemption from CGT. but if you think that wouldn't be far far more unpopular than stamp duty, you haven't thought it through.

antrobus

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

it makes no difference whether buyer or seller pays stamp duty. if the seller paid it, prices would increase slightly to compensate, so we'd be back exactly where we were. i.e. instead of buyer paying £200k to seller + £2k stamp duty, they'd pay £202k to seller, who'd then pay £2k stamp duty.

it would certainly be different to make PPRs exempt from stamp duty but remove their exemption from CGT. but if you think that wouldn't be far far more unpopular than stamp duty, you haven't thought it through.

I'm pleased at least one person gets it.

Linton

The_White_Horse wrote: »

why? the bigger the gain, the more tax you have to pay.

You should read the discussions on the "debate" board. The market has set the amount that the buyer should pay for a house to be £202000 of which £200K happens to go to the seller and £2K to the government. If the government stopped taking the £2K the seller would be able to charge £202000 without reducing the number of people able to buy the property.

le_loup

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Don'ta just love these right wing nuts who believe that they shouldn't pay their way? Let me remind you that we have in power a government you wanted and you are still not prepared to support them by paying your fair whack of tax!

The_White_Horse

le_loup wrote: »

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Don'ta just love these right wing nuts who believe that they shouldn't pay their way? Let me remind you that we have in power a government you wanted and you are still not prepared to support them by paying your fair whack of tax!

this is not the govt i wanted. they are wet filth who take from people on 60k whilst giving to couples on 100k. stamp duty is a ridiculous tax.

i believe in very very small tax. everyone should pay their way out of their salary. if i want to buy a 600k house, why should i have to pay the govt 24k to do so? how can this be justified??? why don't they whack VAT on it as well to get another £120k.

this govt take far too much and give away too much to the undeserving. i would have more than enough if they didn't keep taking from me, income tax, ni, vat, fuel duty tax, tax on savings, vat on tax when i get petrol, tax on dividends, tax tax tax.

this govt is as conservative as ken livingstone.

GSMAnon

Why is The_White_Horse being ostracised for wanting to minimise his tax liability?

And that's what it is - a liability. Not a duty. Not a privilege. A liability. A Burden.

We all have our different philosophies viz. tax. But this IS the cutting tax sub-forum, so please don't attack somebody for inquiring as to how to cut tax...

Personally I'm with The_White_Horse, but that's neither here nor there. We're not here to debate the ethics of tax, we're here to help one another maximise our earnings and minimise our losses regardless of the motivation for wanting to do so.