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Article: Brown's [pounds sterling]2.5bn grab; How the Chancellor rakes it in by refusing to raise stamp duty thresholds.
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- March 5, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: SEAN POULTER
AN extra [pounds sterling]2.5billion a year is being plundered from home buyers through a huge increase in stamp duty bills compared with six years ago.
Income from this stealth tax has soared by 114 per cent to [pounds sterling]4.6billion a year over the same period, research reveals.
House prices have leapt by 175 per cent since Labour came to power in 1997.
However, Gordon Brown has consistently refused to raise the threshold at which higher stamp duty rates kick in.
As a result, 3.5million homes have been dragged into paying the higher rates, which start at 3 per cent on properties over [pounds ...