MPs debate stamp duty and the housing market, 4 September 1.30pm

chewmylegoff

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The system will be revenue neutral. So if there's no stamp duty on properties up to £180k in value. Then there's a sizable tab to be picked up by the bands above.

Interesting that there was no announcement with regards to rates prior to the independence vote.

It was announced in June 2013...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-23034247

princeofpounds

I would think ultimately the government would want to encourage transactions as this incurs lots of costs in terms of using tradespeople/services etc so it's odd that stamp duty still exists to discourage this.

Indeed. It totally kills labour mobility. Not a good thing.

In France stamp duty on property is a flat 5%. Also the notaire picks up a fee of 1% -2% of the selling price.

The notaire system is basically extortion. A class of people who get whacking great fees for putting a stamp on a piece of paper.

Why does it take the representatives of 5 million people in Scotland to arrive at a sensible tax while Westminster dithers for ever and ever regarding the rest of the UK?

Indeed. Anyone with half a brain can see that the fixed thresholds for stamp duty are one of the most stupid ideas ever.

But politicians seem to spend all their time dreaming up ad hoc 'schemes' for shared ownership and other bungs, rather than actually making sure we have sensible nuts and bolts in the property transaction system.

Generali

chewmylegoff wrote: »

It was announced in June 2013...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-23034247

Whether it's flat rate, progressive or regressive, SDLT is stilll a very stupid idea. IMHO of course.

wotsthat

Wonder if any of the MP's participating in the debate pondered scrapping stamp duty and spending less on something else instead?

Generali

wotsthat wrote: »

Wonder if any of the MP's participating in the debate pondered scrapping stamp duty and spending less on something else instead?

What? And then face accusations that they are wicked B@@@@@@@@ because they don't want to wee a load of my money up the wall on 15 people checking that the people that count the number of black people working in the NHS employ enough Chinese people. Crazy notion.

buglawton

Generali wrote: »

Whether it's flat rate, progressive or regressive, SDLT is stilll a very stupid idea. IMHO of course.

There have been recent news announcements last week, about the rates now being set and the plan is to make it 'revenue neutral', that the Scottish scheme will raise the same money as before. A Scottish minister explained in the news article that their committee had discussed what was wrong with stamp duty as was and the biggie was the artificial cliff-edge distorting transactions and the economy in general.

They seem to be setting a threshold of somewhere around £150,000 below which no transaction tax, and after that something like 10% on the amount that exceeds that threshold.

Personally I would have raised 0.5% on every transaction regardless of amount and a lower marginal rate after the threshold to keep it revenue-neutral.

purch

wotsthat wrote: »

Wonder if any of the MP's participating in the debate pondered spending less on something

errr ........................ yeah, like that would happen :eek:

Thrugelmir

chewmylegoff wrote: »

It was announced in June 2013...

I know that. No one knows what the bandings or rates are yet.

So if you are buying a new property with completion after next April . What stamp duty rate will you be paying? Closer it gets the more house prices may be impacted.

caronoel

Comrade Milliband's proposal for a "mansion tax" will just amplify the problems of SDLT.

Particularly, once Labour figure out how easy it will be for them to introduce the entry threshold for the tax at a much lower level than £2m.

Labour just cant help themselves from taxing as much as they can,

buglawton

Milliband wants to target easy visible things and gain a sort of Robin Hood popularity. Rather than propose something intelligent like actually maximising revenue along Laffer principles.

"One potential result of the Laffer curve is that increasing tax rates beyond a certain point will be counter-productive for raising further tax revenue."
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve