Stamp duty could be scrapped for all homes worth under £500,000 in an earlier emergency Budget in September if Boris Johnson becomes the next UK prime minister and Britain exits Europe with no deal, according to reports.
Analysis from Yahoo Finance UK confirmed the move could save first-time buyers up to £10,000 on their first home and give buy-to-let landlords and second homeowners a £30,000 tax cut.
Johnson is also looking at reversing former chancellor George Osborne’s stamp duty hike on more expensive homes from 12 to seven per cent, according to The Times.
The stamp duty increases are widely seen to have cooled the London property market in recent years.
Three sources in his campaign told The Times he was considering an ‘emergency budget’ including stamp duty cuts, large tax breaks for business investment and an “assault” on regulation.
Brexit-fueled price crash
However, the Bank of England has warned that house prices could crash by as much as 30% in a worst-case scenario, with Britain entering a serious recession.
Stamp duty is a tax on property purchases. It is currently paid on the value of property higher than £125,000 for residential properties and £150,000 for non-residential properties and land.
Buyers currently pay a two per cent tax on the value of their main residence between £125,000 and £250,000, five per cent from £250,001 to £925,000, 10 per cent to £1.5m and 12 per cent for properties above that.
Higher taxes are paid on more expensive property bands, with 15 per cent the highest rate for second homeowners on the value of properties above £1.5m.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
