Stamp Duty (SDLT), first called ‘The Land Tax’, was introduced in 1692 during the reign of William & Mary and was designed to raise money to fund a war against France (if you are Euro-skeptic you may think it was a worthwhile investment!).

The slab-sided Stamp Duty Tax had various tiers from 0-5% and these levels remained for many years. At the time, under pressure from the coalition government to help reduce the Deficit in the Budget of 2012, the higher levels of the Tax were raised to 7% and 15% dependent on whether the purchase was personal or corporate. There was a lot of ‘white noise’ about international buyers escaping Stamp Duty by purchasing shares in the corporate entity that owned the property rather than purchasing the asset itself. A further ‘quasi Mansion Tax’ was also applied to corporate purchasers by way of ATED which could impose another Tax of £150,000 per annum. Continue reading →