Stamp taxes receipts for April 2025 to August 2025 had been £8.1bn, which is £0.8bn greater than the identical interval final yr, based on the most recent figures from HMRC.
And homebuyers paid £9.3bn in stamp duty between January and August this yr, based on Coventry Building Society’s evaluation of the HMRC statistics. This represents a 20.6% enhance on the £7.7bn paid over the identical interval final yr.
In August, homebuyers paid £1.3bn, in comparison with £1.4bn in July – and this might show to be the yearly peak for the tax.
A possible shake-up to property tax hit the headlines in mid-late August, with strategies that stamp duty could possibly be scrapped within the Autumn Budget and changed with a brand new property tax for sellers on houses value greater than £500,000.
More lately it got here to gentle that the federal government is contemplating plans to permit homebuyers to pay stamp duty in instalments.
As Coventry BS factors out, this might take some monetary strain off patrons however would possibly add one other layer of uncertainty that might immediate individuals to carry fireplace on a transfer for now.
Coventry Building Society head of middleman relationships Jonathan Stinton commented: “Nobody needs to be the final one to pay the previous tax. If individuals assume they might save 1000’s beneath a brand new system, and even unfold the associated fee over time, some could select to carry off shopping for till there’s extra readability.
“The thought of shifting the burden from patrons to sellers, or permitting staggered funds, can be a big shake-up, and for a lot of patrons it could take away one of many largest limitations to proudly owning a house. But hypothesis could make the housing market maintain its breath for a minute whereas individuals wait to see what occurs.”
Stinton added that any reform wanted to be fastidiously thought by to keep away from any unintended penalties.
“Passing the tax to sellers may make individuals on the high of the chain assume twice about shifting, whereas staggered repayments may have an effect on how a lot individuals can borrow. Reform has to strike the fitting steadiness in order that it helps patrons, retains sellers within the market, and helps the housing market preserve shifting.”
