Data from HMRC showed that over 2025, homebuyers paid £15.4bn in stamp duty, an 18% rise on the £13bn paid the year before.
Since the start of the financial year in April, £10.6bn has been collected in stamp duty, similar to the £10.5bn generated through the tax for the 2023-24 financial year.
Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society, said: “We talk a lot about affordability in the housing market, but stamp duty is the cost people feel immediately. It’s a tax that hasn’t kept pace with how the market has changed, and that mismatch is dragging more and more buyers into paying more than they expected.
“Put simply, house prices have jumped by almost £100,000 since the thresholds were introduced, yet the tax bands unashamedly haven’t moved with them. Buyers today are being charged as though they’re shopping in a market from a decade ago.
“If stamp duty has any chance of being considered fair and proportionate, it has to reflect the world we live in now, not the one we lived in 12 years ago. An urgent refresh of the thresholds would bring the system back in line with reality and take some of the pressure off people trying to move.”
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IHT receipts near record high
Some £769m was paid in inheritance tax (IHT) in December, a jump from the £588m collected in November.
Since the start of the financial year in April, £6.6bn has been paid through IHT, a £232m rise on the same period a year earlier.
The rate of IHT intake increase has been slowing compared to previous years, but is still on track to surpass the previous year’s record and reach the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) forecast of £8.7bn in 2025-26.
David Cooper, director at Just Group, said: “IHT has been a powerful revenue generator for the Treasury following four consecutive years of record tax takes thanks to frozen thresholds and rising asset prices.
“While the tax is just about on track to clock up a fifth consecutive annual high and meet the OBR’s estimate, there are signs that the rate of increase has flattened this year. The Treasury will be banking on the policies announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 to provide fresh momentum to meet the 67% increase in revenue forecast over the next five years.
“In a changeable fiscal environment, anyone who is concerned that their estate may be subject to IHT should get an up-to-date valuation of their estate, including an assessment of their property wealth.”
