One in five Shropshire buyers pay higher rate stamp duty
Nearly one in five home buyers in the Shropshire Council area is now paying stamp duty at the higher rate of three per cent or more and facing bills of more than £7,500, according to research published today.
But the figure is far lower in Telford & Wrekin at just seven per cent, according to the figures.
Only house sales of £250,000 or more are hit by the three per cent stamp duty rate.
Nationally, the three per cent rate is applicable to more than a quarter of house sales, illustrating the rising cost of housing.
The data was released as pressure group the TaxPayers' Alliance launched a Stamp Out Stamp Duty campaign calling for a cut in the "punitive" levy, which raised £4 billion for the Treasury in 2012/13. Of that, £3.6 billion was collected at rates of three per cent or more.
Sales of residential properties are free of stamp duty up to the value of £125,000 and attract a one per cent tax between £125,000 and £250,000.
Rising house prices mean more purchasers are paying at the higher rates of three per cent applied to homes worth between £250,000 and £500,000, four per cent on those valued at up to £1 million, five per cent on those between £1-£2 million and seven per cent above that.
Home-buyers in London and the south east are hardest hit, but an increasing number of people in other parts of the country are being hit by stamp duty at the three per cent rate, which the TPA argues acts as a barrier both for first-time buyers and existing home-owners wanting to move house to get a new job, be near to relatives or accommodate a growing family.
In Shropshire, £10,677,393 was raised through stamp duty last year but 75 per cent of that was from homes subject to a rate of three per cent or higher. In Telford & Wrekin, stamp duty raised £2,771,792 with 55 per cent from higher rates.
Charles Howell, partner at Shropshire estate agent Cooper Green Pooks said: "I think there is a resignation that stamp duty has to be paid and that it keeps going up."
TPA chief executive Matthew Sinclair said: "Ministers have done nothing to ease the burden imposed by stamp duty, which is an unfair double tax that gets in the way of would-be first-time buyers and others thinking about moving. Instead they have made things worse with new thresholds and new, higher rates."
