Higher stamp duty for buying property not as main residence?

obsessed_saver

The idea is to charge a hefty stamp duty for buying properties as an investment. Maybe 10% or 20% or even 30%?

What would be the downside of this?

poppysarah

Downside?

erm...

plus side: government gets more tax revenue.

bristol_pilot

The downside is that it is easily avoidable. Buy a house as your main home, then buy another house and move into it as your main home and rent out (or leave empty) the first one...repeat as necessary.

m00m00

downside, a lot more deception and deceit from BTL muppets

they won't just be lying about their rental income

Captain_Mainwaring_2

m00m00 wrote: »

downside, a lot more deception and deceit from BTL muppets

they won't just be lying about their rental income

Oh dear, do you have an objection to people investing in property then?

Are you a "renter" then?

bristol_pilot

He/she might be a homeowner who does not get tax relief on their mortgage interest objecting to the tax relief enjoyed by property investors. Or maybe an investor in shares, bonds or anyone else who doesn't get tax relief on their investments either.

m00m00

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

Oh dear, do you have an objection to people investing in property then?

Are you a "renter" then?

I own 2 properties outright, bought in cash, literally in one case.

sorry to spoil the stereotype

rental income from both properties 0

some things are more important than money

Captain_Mainwaring_2

What stereotype? I didn't ask you about that.

Good for you. I rent out my property and my tenant is happy, and what of it?

Some thing more important that money? you didn't say that when you bought a cheapo repo though. I would have though that your principals would have objected.

obsessed_saver

Ok, stamp duty on the valuation of your existing main residence property when buying another main residence property, if you decide not to sell the existing one.

Anyway, I guess my main question was what's the downside of making property investment unattractive as an investment?

Doozergirl

obsessed_saver wrote: »

Anyway, I guess my main question was what's the downside of making property investment unattractive as an investment?

I should think an increase in delapidated housing stock. Not everyone has the means to bring a property back to life. If it's unmortgageable, the likelyhood of a property being bought by a FTB with cash and the means to fix it is pretty low.

Areas looking for regeneration won't find money injected quite as readily.

You do get taxed on the income and on the sale price when you sell. If you've made a big profit, you pay tax on it like any other income.