Britain¡¯s property-based tax for funding local services is a travesty ¡ª unfair, arbitrary and regressive. Stamp duty, which is levied on real estate transactions, distorts the housing market and discourages people from moving.
Though Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves¡¯ new mansion tax on properties worth ?2?million and above, announced in her autumn budget, is welcomed by some, a radical overhaul that replaces these taxes would be both long overdue and promises lasting economic benefits. It would also be politically perilous ¡ª though if nothing else, getting rid of stamp duty would at least preclude the chance of future underpayment scandals ensnaring senior ministers.
Council tax, as the local levy is known, is the more objectionable of the two. There was no conceivable justification for a system that imposed a higher burden on the inhabitants of a terraced house in Burnley, a deprived town in the northwest, than on a mansion in London¡¯s Kensington and Chelsea, the U.K.¡¯s richest borough. Remarkably, this was the reality not only for the tax as a percentage of property value (which is vastly lower for the most expensive homes) but in cash terms, too.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.