Do you think there will be a stamp duty holiday?

[Bells3032]

If so when? and do you think it will be deferred payments or a rise in the threshold?

I am hoping for one as we want to move towards the end of the year.

No, why should there be?

Not a chance based on this

www.statista.com/statistics/284328/stamp-duty-land-tax-united-kingdom-hmrc-tax-receipts/

A lot of articles and think tanks are discussing it - would get the housing market which has been stagnant for years now moving and people moving brings in more purchasing etc. They did it during the 2009 and 1991 recession. why shouldn't they. Better to have 100 houses sold bringing in 3% tax rather than 20 houses bringing in 5%

The housing market would get moving if prices were lower,more could afford to buy and move.
The government have not got the money to chuck around at the moment.Look how much they have lost in tax receipt over the last three months and how much has been paid out in furlong.

@Lochroy - because there have been calls for it: "Voices from across the property industry are calling for a stamp duty holiday to resurrect a market left at death’s door by the coronavirus outbreak."

and

"Hew Edgar, RICS head of government relations, said: “RICS is not an organisation that would call for a stamp duty holiday on a whim".

(Source: Stamp duty holiday:calls for break during coronavirus rise amid loss of 520,000 UK property sales in 2020)

@Bells3032 - I'm unsure. There were calls for a stamp duty holiday in April but apart from a few articles hoping for one, there hasn't been any indication that the government will actually do this.

Like in the link that @Theyweretheworstoftimes shared, the government make a lot of money through Stamp Duty Tax so it would be a tricky one for them.

Although, if it was a short stamp duty tax window (say, 3-6 months) then it could work because it will create a sense of urgency in the property market. It's possible that the side effect will be that some people will inevitably miss the holiday deadline and then may end up paying the stamp duty tax anyway, so government still profits from the situation. In that scenario it could potentially bit like the 'free one month subscription' business model where they kinda do it to create and drive more interest knowing some people are going to default and end up paying.

I for one would welcome a stamp duty holiday or more importantly a complete overhaul of this extortionate and disproportionate tax for home owners trying to move for personal reasons to themselves.
There is a petition, although needs a huge amount of more signatures to get in front of government. Get signing and share!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/310695

I very much doubt it because it's a nice little earner and now the Government needs every penny it can get. Also it's not universally unpopular because a lot of buyers over the country as a whole are barely affected by it.

Maybe they’d raise the threshold, but I can’t imagine them cutting it totally. A stamp duty holiday would mainly benefit the wealthy, and there won’t be any political appetite for that. We are wealthy, and are expecting tax rises over the coming years - the government has to raise money somewhere to deal with the coming recession.

I can't see it Bells3032. As others say, it is now a huge source of revenue for the government. Also, they have a major tax deficit now with all the money supporting people who can't work in lockdown. All sectors are making the case for government support so it will be hard to say yes to all of them.

@Bells3032 and @nettie434

This was in the news today. There might be something to it!

Government to relax stamp duty surcharge reclaim date

Thanks for that link ChocoTrio. Now if the government does change stamp duty, I can nod sagely and say, 'Yes, I believe it's been predicted for some time' Let's hope it happens Bells3032 for you and for my nephew and his girlfriend who are hoping to exchange soon.

I was hoping there would be one, but think they’d only do it if market was collapsing and early signs suggest it’s not - so no need for it (sigh)

I doubt it

HAHAHAHA. As if. Wishful thinking.

would get the housing market which has been stagnant for years moving

Has the market been stagnant for years? Stagnant how? As in people not selling or buying? I see little evidence of that. We regularly hear that we need more houses to be built to meet demand. That doesn’t suggest a stagnant market; quite the opposite. It suggests pent up demand.

The thing that might have restricted house purchases is high prices. Reducing stamp duty will bring more entrants into the market, competing for the same houses. What will happen to prices then, do you think? Oh yes, they will go up.

I don’t see demand reducing either. Anyone with a bit of capital won’t want to park it on deposit because interest rates are so poor. They will want to put it into a different type of asset. Like housing or equities. That’s what I’d be doing if I found myself with a couple of hundred grand spare and didn’t want to see it eaten away by inflation.

If they cut stamp duty, they will be more than compensated by the extra CGT they would receive from landlords selling up!

What makes you think that landlords will sell up? Do you think that it’s one for one, out of rented and into mortgaged? It’s not. Plus I doubt that the CGT take from this small group will offset the stamp duty lost.

@ QuoteIamthewombat

I'm a landlord and I would sell a £1.25m property, if buyers weren't put off by the stamp duty. That alone would generate £200k CGT.

I know it's not one in one out, as many naive, hopeful buyers believe.
It's my understanding 159,000 additional households are projected to be formed each year.

@ QuoteIamthewombat
Capital gains tax receipts (CGT) are at a record high, rising by 18% over the past two tax years (2017/18, 2018/19), from £7.8 billion to £9.2 billion.

The government’s tax squeeze on buy-to-let landlords is behind the increase. Various government measures introduced over the past couple of years have made buy-to-let property less appealing, and one of the rule changes to have a particularly profound impact was the phasing out of tax relief on buy-to-let mortgage interest in 2017.

As a result of returns diminishing, many small private landlords have decided a rental property portfolio is no longer worth the hassle – but those who have sold since 2017 have incurred an 8% “second property” surcharge on standard rates of CGT. In turn, this has led overall CGT receipts to rise to record levels.

From today's Telegraph
"Research has shown that a one percentage point cut in stamp duty could boost sales by 20pc, resulting in hundreds of millions of pounds in extra tax revenue working its way into the Treasury’s depleted coffers. Wouldn’t that be a win-win?"