Simon Spavound

Everyone hates stamp duty. Everyone knows an annual property tax would be better. But no one has come up with a plan that: 1️⃣ Fully removes stamp duty 2️⃣ Leaves no one worse off than on the current system 3️⃣ Raises money for the Treasury from day one Until now. There are a plethora of think tank reports advocating switching from stamp duty to an annual property tax. Because stamp duty sucks! It gums up the property market and makes it costly to move house. As a result, people stay in the wrong place for longer: 💼 workers pay a penalty for moving to new job opportunities 🪹 empty-nesters are effectively fined for downsizing 🧑‍🍼 new parents can’t afford homes large enough for their families. But there’s a reason that no government has managed to replace it: ending stamp duty means EITHER: ⬇️ Foregoing a huge amount of revenue (close to £12bn) for years, OR ⬆️ Massively raising taxes on people who have just bought a house (and already paid stamp duty) For all the pages that have been written on stamp duty, no one has managed to design a tax that avoids this dilemma. We think we have an answer. Our scheme would give buyers a choice: when you next buy a house, you can EITHER pay stamp duty on the current system, OR you commit to paying an annual property tax - 0.16% for an average property worth £300,000 (which works out at £480 a year). For someone who moves house twice in 10 years, this will be a huge saving on the current system, as shown below:

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