"Stamp duty is to be axed for a year on properties less than £175,000, reported the BBC this morning, while households earning less than £60,000 will be offered “free” loans for five years on new houses – the latter to be funded by a mix of developers and yes…you’ve guessed it, the taxpayer!"
I can see how this might just help anyone who is trying to sell a property between £125k and £175k, by making it
slightly more attractive to buyers - but how's it supposed to help the economy in general? What about the bigger picture? Less money coming into the govt. coffers, at a time when they're likely to have increasing unemployment benefit payments etc. etc.....And what about any properties
over £175k? Do we assume if you can afford to look at property above this price, you can afford to pay stamp duty?
I must be missing something.
I've long wondered why the Spanish govt. doesn't reduce transfer tax / IVA (VAT) by, say, 50% for a temporary period, to try to stimulate the market. After all, 3.5% of
something is surely better than 7% of
nothing, which must be roughly how much they're getting at the moment? And on a €200k property, the saving to buyers of €7k would go a long way to furnishing that new home - or buy a brand new Dacia Logan to park outside, with 3 years warranty and servicing - now
that's what I call Credit Crunch beating!
But scrapping transfer tax (or stamp duty) altogether doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.