Stamp duty is hugely emotive, apart from the taxman nobody likes it, so much so that it has been referred to as a tax on “mobility and aspiration”. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has labelled it “a badly designed tax which gums up property markets” and “a disastrous, unfair and unnecessary tax”. There is much talk about abolition and exemptions as a way to ignite the property market. Yet it is not disastrous for the Treasury, with the tax office netting £11.7 billion through the tax in the past financial year. This is a 10 per cent rise on the previous year anda whopping 70 per cent more than five years ago.

Source: The Times August 11, 2017 23:03 UTC