The West Bromwich Building Society is calling on industry support to help them lobby for the stamp duty threshold to be increased.
According to the building society, 70% of homebuyers now pay stamp duty, as opposed to only 35% in 1993. The West Brom wants the threshold to increase to £150,000.
Our View
Stamp Duty is yet another increasing stealth tax for the Government. It starts at 1% for properties over £60,000, 3% for over £250,000 and a whopping 4% for properties over £500,000.
Why should there be a scale if not for blatant profiteering? We believe that the stamp duty debate could go one of two ways - firstly, leave the threshold at £60,000 and introduce a flat rate of tax, rather than an increasing scale.
Secondly, increase the threshold to around £150,000 and increase the rate above 1% for all.
Whichever way stamp duty goes in the end, it will always benefit the Government. They have set income thresholds needed and will do anything to achieve them!