| Stamp Duty |
| The issue: |
The Conservatives have promised to raise the Stamp Duty threshold to £250,000. What will the percentage rates be above this threshold? Will those that have to pay Stamp Duty have to pay more as a result of the raised threshold? |
| Date Issue Raised: |
25 Apr 2005 |
| My response: |
Thank you for the email.
This is the Press Notice which the Party put out last week. The reduction in Stamp Duty is funded by savings identified in the James review - not by an increase in duty above the proposed threshold.
Best wishes, George Young
A £1 billion plan to help Britain's homebuyers and businesses, by raising the threshold for stamp duty to £250,000, has been unveiled by the Conservatives.
The dramatic move, which will exempt the vast majority of first time buyers from paying the levy on house purchase deals, completes the party's £4 billion package of tax cuts to be introduced in the first Conservative Budget, which has been designed to ease the pressure on millions of people hit hard by scores of stealth levy rises imposed during eight years of Labour government.
The lifting of the stamp duty threshold, from £120,000 on domestic properties and up from £150,000 on the sale of commercial premises, will free more than half a million homebuyers a year from paying stamp duty, with 80 per cent of home purchasing attracting no stamp duty at all.
As a result of the Conservative tax cutting drive, average homebuyers in the UK will pay no stamp duty at all. In England and Wales this means a saving of £1,800.
Announcing the proposals at an election campaign conference in London, Conservative Leader Michael Howard spotlighted the increasing struggle families endure trying to pay their way in Blair's high tax Britain.
And pointing out that last year average incomes fell for the first time in a decade - thanks to Labour's punishing stealth taxes - he declared: "That's why I am announcing today that we will abolish Stamp Duty for the average home in Britain. This will help young people to get onto the property ladder. And it will make it easier for young couples starting a family to buy a bigger home. Six years ago, you paid £900 on the average house in England and Wales. Under Mr Blair, it's risen to £1,800. With a Conservative Government, it will be zero."
Mr Howard stressed: "For most families, their home is their most valuable asset. It's the bedrock of their security - both financial security and personal security. It's time we stopped using people's homes as a means of raising taxes by stealth. It's all part of our detailed, fully-costed plan to give taxpayers value for money."
The party leader explained that by saving two pence in every pound the government currently spends - largely by cutting out waste and unnecessary bureaucracy - his administration will be able to stop Labour's planned stealth taxes dead in their tracks.
"And we'll be able to reward hardworking Britons by lowering taxes for millions of pensioners, homebuyers and people saving for pensions," he promised.
Mr Howard said: "Mr Blair is spending your money so quickly and so wastefully that he needs to take more and more of it. In contrast, Conservatives will cut all the waste that Labour won't.
"And that will release more cash to spend on frontline services that matter to families - like our schools, hospitals and police; pay off government borrowing, and avoid another Blair-style round of stealth taxes; and lower taxes." |
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Sir George Young Bt MP: Constituency and Parliamentary Website