Stamp tax receipts for April 2024 to September 2024 amount to £8.6 billion, which is £0.9 billion higher than the same period last year.
Image: Crown Copyright
The figures exclude taxes on land transactions transferred to Scotland and Wales.
Coventry Building Society has calculated how much homebuyers in each region of England will pay in stamp duty if the temporary thresholds are not extended in next week’s Budget.
Home buyers currently pay stamp duty if their home costs more than £250,000. After the end of March 2025, this will drop to £125,000, taking the tax burden on an average-priced house in England from £2,978 to £5,478.
First-time buyers currently pay stamp duty if their home costs more than £425,000, which will drop to £300,000 by March 2025.
In September, homebuyers paid £1.1 billion in stamp duty, bringing the total so far this year to £8.8 billion.
News was reported that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will not extend the increased thresholds as part of the next budget Mortgage strategy last week.
Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relations at Coventry Building Society, said: “Anyone looking to move in the near future should pay close attention to the Chancellor next week.
She could announce that the current stamp duty thresholds will not be extended, or she could quietly let them fall off a cliff without mentioning them – either way, if the rumors are true, there will in fact be a tax. increase for home buyers.”
He added: “If she makes an announcement and reminds people of the deadline there is a risk of market disruption, with people rushing to complete properties before the end of March. If she remains silent, there’s a risk that buyers won’t fully realize that their tax bill is about to skyrocket, and so won’t factor in the additional costs.
Stinton said it already felt like the tax increase most people had forgotten about. “The deadline for these thresholds was given to us in November 2022, but I think we were all secretly hoping that a long-term plan for stamp duty would be put in place in the meantime. Now it appears that we will still be waiting for real reforms, and buyers will have to prepare for the tax increase that may be on the way.”