Article: Stamp duty tax traps five in six buying their own home.

Byline: BECKY BARROW

FIVE out of six homebuyers are forced to pay a massive bill for stamp duty when they purchase a property, research reveals today.

A decade of soaring house prices is trapping huge numbers into paying the punitive tax.

A typical buyer has to fork out about [pounds sterling]2,220 before meeting any of the other costs involved in the expensive process.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has increased the rate at which stamp duty is charged four times, making it a highly lucrative tax for Labour since the party came to power in 1997.

Before then, just 45 per cent of buyers paid the duty which raised [pounds ...

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