The UK's Property Taxation Is Unfair And Outdated

The UK’s current system of property taxation is unfair and outdated.

The Institute for Public Policy Research has produced a report advocating that council tax and stamp duty are scapped and replaced by a tax of 0.5% of the value of the property itself..

It argues that council tax is based on 30-year-old property valuations, varies widely around the country, and is capped at relatively low property values, meaning that a multi-million-pound property in the South-East of England can attract the same tax bill as a normal family home elsewhere.

Stamp duty, the widely disliked tax levied on the sale of properties, acts to ‘gum up’ the housing market and to hinder the efficient use of housing. Neither has done enough to address the enormous increase in housing wealth over the past 40 to 50 years that has been primarily concentrated in London and the South East, and disproportionately benefitted the old and already wealthy.

This charge would hit the wealthiest hardest as their bills would rise based on the value of their property but the IPPR says 75 per cent of homeowners would pay a lower tax charge.

You can read the whole report here