Playing with Stamp Duty rates has been the pastime of many former Chancellors over the past 8 years, ever since the hapless Osborne decided to convert the system from a ‘slab-sided’ to a ‘sliced’ version in 2014. The rates at the higher end, particularly for people with more than one house and then more recently, of foreign origin, are now 17% and for a long while these changes resulted in a lower tax-take for the Treasury, quite apart from the distorting effect that it had on the number of sales which took place. Continue reading →