Summer heatwave of stamp duty land tax receipts

Latest HMRC tax receipts statistics published today show a summer heatwave of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) receipts, with more SDLT revenues collected (£1.497bn) by the Treasury in July 2022 than in any other summer month since records began. The only month in history that SDLT receipts have been higher was December 2021 (£1.737bn).

Excluding Air Passenger Duty, where the receipts were significantly depressed by the pandemic, SDLT receipts have grown faster than any other tax in the current financial year from 1 April 2022.

Chris Etherington, partner at RSM UK comments: ‘These record levels of property tax receipts highlight how SDLT is quickly becoming the biggest tax on wealth by stealth.  

‘Other than the special measures introduced in the pandemic, the thresholds at which SDLT becomes payable have been frozen since 4 December 2014. In the last year alone, the average house price has increased by nearly 12%, so more people are getting sucked into the SDLT tax net than ever before.

‘We are reaching a point where taxpayers may start to question why they are having to pay so much tax just to move house. At current levels, SDLT could start to distort the property market with some unable to afford to move due to the tax payable.’