stamp duty holiday

As I understand it, stamp duty is a tax on the conveyance, not on the contract to buy, so it should be paid at the rate applying on completion, not on exchange.

As an aside I would remark that by announcing that they might suspend stamp duty but without actually doing so yet the govt will bring the tiny housing market to a stop while people wait to see what the decision is. Why did they not just decide and then announce the decision?

Governments tend to do this. They seem totally blind to the effects of this sort of statement of intent. I remember Nigel Lawson (Maggie Thatcher's much-vaunted Chancellor) announcing a future change to the rules on mortgage tax relief on jointly owned property. This caused a flurry of activity prior to the change.

Rob Graham

Caution. They want to run the flag up a pole and see how people react.

Seems to me though that they haven't got the cahs to do this. Aren't they already under warning from the EU due to the current account deficit?

FoFP

Why would you expect the government to do something sensible? Experience tells us otherwise. Rememeber the then chancellor sold large amounts of our gold reserves at a low price and even announced he was doing it beforehand!

And one of the stories was just that they were going to allow people to defer paying it (no mention of with or without interest), like allowing people to wait two years before paying is going to make any difference.

tim