The Sun Newspaper Reports Leaked Budget Plans To Increase SDLT Again

Hammond’s job is raising more money whilst not losing voters to Corbyn.
Few landlords are going to vote for Corbyn
Plus will encourage first time homeowners presently socialist but who may well vote Tory once they join the homeowning classes. Very unfair on landlords who do a great job but may well happen

An article in The Telegraph this weekend reported as follows:-

Philip Hammond has been warned against hiking levies on buy-to-let properties over fears the move would result in lower revenues for the Treasury.

Two former Conservative cabinet ministers criticised reported plans for an increase in the government levy charged on buy-to-let purchases, which are said to be under consideration for the autumn Budget.

John Redwood, the former trade secretary said: “There is no need to increase taxes and if you carry on increasing them you'll collect less money from people, which is the opposite of what we want to achieve.”

“The answer for the Treasury is cut stamp duty and you’ll raise more money.”

Figures published this week show 11 per cent smaller stamp duty revenues in the second quarter of 2018, compared to this time last year.

The Treasury plans will be billed as an attempt to ease Britain’s housing shortage, by targeting house prices driven up by second home buyers, according to a report in The Sun.

But Lord Lilley, the former social security secretary, told The Telegraph: “The only two ways to get house prices down are to build more houses or to prevent people buying them, by putting taxes on them.”

“They’ve opted for the second one. But we just need to build more houses. We’ve let 4 million extra people into the country and we haven’t built enough houses for the people who are already here,” he said.

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/04/hammond-urged-not-launch-tax-attack-second-home-owners-new-buy/

Fewer properties available for renting means rents will rise and landlords will be able to select those they rent to. The less well off will be the losers. This gov cannot see that effectively they are taxing the poor! Build more social housing and leave the PRS alone.

This increasing tax on landlords so annoys me. Over the years I have worked extremely hard to build my portfolio. I live in a fishing/sea faring area and a lot of people who are at sea pay no taxes at all - they can be on land most of the year but as long as they are out at sea on a specific anniversary date then they pay no taxes for that year. Anybody in the merchant navy can do this as well and I know someone who works one week a month at sea and earns over £60,000 but pays no tax on that and he can also work for a separate company in the UK doing a second job and still earn £10,000 and use that as his tax allowance thereby in effect not paying any tax at all on £70,000! If the government want to raise more money why don't they start by rewriting the rules on seafarers.

Reply to the comment left by Paul1000 at 06/08/2018 - 10:01
Sounds a bit like deja vu. Help first time buyers to buy houses they can't really afford. Rate increase and they fall into arrears, but there's no one left to buy the houses. We don't want to pay extra stamp duty or the prices that the FTBs paid and big companies want "luxury"apartments, not semis and terraces. Govt panic - reduce borrowing ability and blame lenders.

Reply to the comment left by Kathy Evans at 06/08/2018 - 13:40Yes, Kathy, that's how I see this playing out if the second home SDLT premium is increased further. Landlords were already paying ten times as much SDLT on a £150,000 property as a first time buyer before FTBs were exempted recently. Even higher rates will mean they are unlikely to buy from landlords who must sell to avoid bankruptcy when S.24 fully takes effect. To salvage anything from their investment and years of work those landlords will be obliged to drop prices. Valuers/lenders downvalue properties in a falling market so first time buyers, already severely restricted by PRA rules to the extent that they are often deemed to be unable to afford mortgage payments well below what they are paying in rent, will be unable to take advantage of the lower asking prices. So the only buyers are likely to be the few first-timers left a large legacy or big, incorporated landlords. Maybe we'll have more local monopoly landlords like in Ashford, Kent. The whole residential market will be screwed with second-steppers who need to move up to a bigger place stuck in one-bed flats or starter homes and heaven help those whose Help to Buy loans become repayable.

Abolish stamp duty!

What is bad for landlords is bad for tenants. While we have a provider -client relationship, our interests are not at odds. What is good for landlords is usually good for tenants and vice versa.
This is often misunderstood by the tenants and public more generally.

I am not sure how many people have signed the petition that Mark initiated but I read the other day that there are now 2.5 million landlords in the UK. I hope this kind of reporting in the press will help landlords realise that things can actually get worse whether the Tories remain in control or Labour takeover.
My question is why are so few landlords responding to these initiatives? Is this a sign of capitulation? Have the majority of us given up?
When the legal challenge to cl 24 was raised after the 2015 finance act I was struck by the low percentage of people who responded to the funding.
I would also say I am disappointed by the Landlord Associations lack of influence when lobbying Government. I am thinking about whether to cancel my subscription in the new year.
How do we get more Landlords to vote for themselves?

Reply to the comment left by Christopher Marsden at 07/08/2018 - 09:48
I know exactly how you feel Chris.

Other forums and the Landlords Associations are not even promoting the petition. I can only assume this is down to petty politics and rivalries being put ahead of the bigger picture.

Sometimes I despair!