The tax office has taken record levels of property tax in the past year, despite the introduction of the first-time buyer exemption in November, figures show.
According to official data, HM Revenue & Customs took a record £13 billion in Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) in 2017, an increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous year’s take.
This also represents a 95 per cent rise on the tax taken in 2012.
Experts say the rise can be attributed to the introduction of the stamp duty surcharge on second properties, as well as house prices rising significantly over the years, incurring more tax.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Jeremy Leaf, a former chairman of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, suggested that there’s little hope the Government would do anything to reverse the tax now.
“If you want to boost transactions and improve social mobility one way of doing that could be to remove stamp duty,” he said.
“But that seems unlikely when the revenue is taking in so much money from it.
“The Government will be unlikely to change something if they don’t feel it’s broken.”
In November, Stamp duty was scrapped for first-time buyers on the first £300,000 of the purchase value, but it appears to have done little to make a dent in the overall tax take.
It was reported earlier this year that UK homeowners are levied more on property as a percentage of GDP than anywhere else in the world.
The latest figures show that property tax receipts – which include charges such as stamp duty, inheritance tax, and business rates – increased to £81.4 billion in 2016, compared to £76.6 billion the year previous.