Tag: SDLT - Tax Policy Associates

Posts tagged "SDLT"

Sep 5, 2025 Analysis

Why Angela Rayner is likely to pay £8,000 in stamp duty penalties

We now have enough information to be able to answer the question of whether Angela Rayner will be subject to HMRC penalties, and how large those penalties will be. For the reasons below, in my view Ms Rayner will very likely receive penalties for a “careless” error of around 20%. The background On the basis […]

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May 23, 2025 Analysis

The Angela Rayner tax proposals – how much sense do they make?

Angela Rayner’s leaked tax memo to Rachel Reeves outlines a raft of new revenue raisers. In this post, I look at each proposal, and ask whether it makes sense, and whether it would raise the claimed amount. The original report from the Telegraph sets out the detail of the memo – see also coverage from […]

Oct 18, 2024 Policy

The tax longlist – 35 ways Rachel Reeves could raise £22bn

Rachel Reeves has said there is a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances, and that she’ll have to raise tax to fill it. Labour are heavily constrained by their pre-election promises, and that makes raising £22bn a challenging endeavour. But certainly not impossible. This is an updated version of my August article. I’ve previously […]

Oct 18, 2024 Policy

How to reform property tax

Property taxes are probably more in need of reform than any other area of UK tax. We have three taxes on property: stamp duty (SDLT), council tax and business rates. They’re bad taxes: they’re unpopular, inequitable, and they hold back growth. There is a way to change this, and tax land in a way that […]

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Jul 14, 2024 Analysis

Property118 – more hopelessly wrong tax advice for landlords

We have previously reported on a high profile unregulated firm called “Property118”, which promoted a series of landlord tax avoidance schemes. HMRC took action, and Property118 has resorted to asking their clients to make donations to fund their appeals. Despite this, Property118 continues to promote tax avoidance that doesn’t work and will land its clients […]

Jun 9, 2024 Analysis

Stamp duty is a terrible tax. We should abolish it – but there’s a price.

Stamp duty is a terrible tax. The Tories want to abolish it for most first time buyers. But the evidence shows that cutting stamp duty increases house prices, and that previous attempts to provide relief for first time buyers were ineffective. Council tax is also terrible tax – with Buckingham Palace paying less council tax […]

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Jun 3, 2024 Analysis

Did Jeremy Hunt avoid SDLT in 2018?

Some people on social media are convinced that Jeremy Hunt avoided tax when he bought seven flats through a company in 2018. We’ve analysed the transaction and believe it’s clear that he didn’t. Here are the claims (click to expand): Probably originating from this piece in the Mirror in 2018, itself based on this Telegraph […]

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Nov 22, 2023 Analysis

Why stamp duty “holidays” are counter-productive

There’s speculation today we might see a stamp duty/SDLT “holiday”.Apologies to all tax professionals, but I’m going to call SDLT “stamp duty” throughout this article. What effect have previous “holidays” had? Here’s a chart showing changes in the average UK house price. Guess what triggered the heart attack in the middle? The big spike in […]

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Jul 19, 2023 Analysis

Yes, of course Muslims pay stamp duty when they buy a house

There’s a Youtube video doing the rounds on Twitter which claims that Muslims don’t have to pay stamp duty when they buy a house. The claim is false, and most likely racist disinformation. I couldn’t see an explanation of this point on the internet, so thought I’d quickly put one together: Normal mortgage finance If […]