Stamp duty legislation change …

[ohpoowhatnow]

With the new ‘leaked’ news that Rachel reeves has plans to abolish stamp duty and move towards a property value tax, would you hold off moving ?

Our house has literally just gone on the market and we haven't found a house yet …. But the removal of stamp duty would save us approximately 25k. Do you think this will be announced in the autumn budget? And if so how long would it take for the legislation to go through ?

Normally when they make a change that is for the betterment of most people they push the change through immediately as to not stall the housing market (like this rumour has done),but then Reeves is an idiot so who knows.

I'd push forward with your plans now. You are unlikely to complete a purchase now before the changes, and if the changes to make things happen better then the competition for property will increase. Id get something secured now in time for the change- rather than waiting for confirmation and then competing against everyone else and potentially having the SDLT saving eroded by a higher property cost.

historically property tax changes are effective from date of contract exchange.

I think it unlikely you will have exchanged before the budget, but whether the "leak" is accurate is guesswork.
If you need to move, then start moving.

Okay thanks both that’s great advice. I will carry on as we are doing and hope that it does come into place in October!

If anything they are looking at raising taxes not reducing. We will pay more to support the idle.

Yeah I know that this isn’t actually a reduction in tax, as there will be something else to replace it. But selfishly at this current time missing a 25k stamp duty bill will massively help.

In the long run people will pay more over a lifetime. Well younger movers anyway
But agree, it’s an odd policy as they are strapped for cash now

Not if they charge you tax on the CGT 'profit' you make on selling your primary residence.

I read a very interesting analysis from Savills yesterday which showed that the chancellor would miss out on a huge amount of up front stamp duty if they did this. It would take approx 16 years of annual property charges before they got the same amount of money as having up front stamp duty. For this reason it seems very unlikely that they would do this, but I think they will add extra tiers of council tax above the current top level (which I think is H).

I thought they were moving the tax bill onto the seller rather than the buyer?

So if you sell your house @ohpoowhatnow you'll have to pay the new property tax on the sale.

They always get you one way or another! unless you're a first time buyer ita just shifted the tax to the other end of the purchase.

I agree this seems more likely

No. That’s not whats proposed

So what is your understanding of what they have proposed?

Theres So many threads on this but basically

Person buys house.
Instead of paying a lump sum Stamp Duty ( extg tax). The house is taxed as a % of the sale price. You pay that % sum each year and it goes to central Govn. One think tank sited approx 0.5% of the sale price.

If you don’t move, just like stamp duty currently, you don’t pay.

I think the fact that they need money now means they would be unlikely to do it.

They want something that actually raises tax, that is the whole point.

Keeping stamp duty and modifying council tax is a good way of doing it, because the collection systems are already in place. Just a matter of implementing extra taxation, which should in theory be quite simple to implement. If you do it on certain bands you don't need rebanding which might be quite difficult to implement.

Of course any tax on higher council tax bands is going to be immediately labelled a "mansion tax" in the press.

That's only one aspect of what they are proposing though.

They are also looking at:

Proposed Seller-Paid Property Tax -

"The government is considering a radical shift in property taxation: scrapping the current Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)—paid by buyers—and replacing it with a seller-paid tax on higher-value property sales. Key details under discussion include:

Threshold: Applies only to properties sold for over £500,000.

Who pays: The seller, not the buyer.

Proposed rates:

0.54% of the sale price for homes between £500,000 and £1 million

An additional 0.278% surcharge on the portion above £1 million

That means:

Selling a £600,000 property could cost ~£3,240

Selling a £1.2 million property could cost ~£8,500

Context: This shift aims to reduce the upfront burden on buyers (especially first-time buyers) and improve housing market fluidity—though critics warn it could still further hinder downsizing and disproportionately affect high-value markets".

Other Tax Proposals of Note

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on Primary Homes: The exemption for main residences might be removed for properties sold over £1.5 million, meaning sellers could owe CGT—18% for basic rate taxpayers, 24% for higher rate—on any gain.

What You are referring to @DrPrunesqualer is:

Annual Property Tax: In the longer term, the government may introduce an annual property tax to replace both stamp duty and council tax. This could be based on property values.

All proposals at this stage, but there's a lot more on the table that could be announced in the Autumn budget.

I agree
but it won’t if there are more Bands across the board and not just at the higher level
incrementally raising each of them.

I also think they may get rid of the single person discount, at least on the higher bands.

I wonder if this has been leaked to test the opposition to it, and then it will not happen.

I would prefer stamp duty or some other house based tax to be paid by the seller.

According to the Inst of Govt, will take 3/4 years to re value and change Council tax.
So the next Govt gets the money and none of the pain... same with increasing retirement age.

It's entirely possible that they are being less than clear on the exact details and timings of what is proposed to test the political appetite. Then if its really unpopular they can deny that's what they meant and introduce a watered down version.

Wouldn't surprise me.

That’s not the subject of this thread though. Which is stamp duty.

In terms of this one
The £500k lower threshold has been debunked.
Others have sited a lower level of £1million

Also of note it has been stated if this is used as an alternative for Stamp you won’t have to pay twice. So for existing property owners who have already paid stamp on their purchase they won’t have to pay when they sell. In the short term therefore it will only affect the very few that bought ( or inherited ) before Stamp was introduced.

There’s another tax being sited aswell. That’s a cgtax on uplift and the loss of PRR

Its likely the media making things up..... same as pre GE, all scare stories.

Changing CT is a huge undertaking and would severely curtail house sales, there maybe tweaks at he higher bands but thats all.

Agree
Reeves is leaking everything
Shes probably on mumsnet et all checking out opinions
🕵️

There is a suggestion that the may introduce Capital Gains Tax on one's primary property. So they may remove Stamp Duty and introduce CGT.

I don't think that I have ever been better off when they make tax changes!

Agree but I think they are being fed some ideas as well through, shall we say, back door sources.

The reality is that none of us know what the rules are definitively until they announce planned changes.

So to answer the OPs question, depending on what her budget is and current house value, I would wait until there's a clearer picture.

I agree but again this has been discussed by various financial experts
The thought , which I agree with, is that property sales would plummet and the housing market would crash

The elderly for example wouldn't bother downsizing. Especially if they have kids
and Those who have upgraded would feel that they will lose out if they sell

So we’ll end up with families unable to find larger properties to move into