Call to alter stamp duty on homes

Stamp duty should be reformed to make the tax fairer to house buyers, the First Minister has been told.

The change to a sliding scale of charges should be made through new powers in the Scotland Act, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) said.

The group wants a “logical” system that ditches large jumps between brackets in tax levels, described as “slabs”.

NAEA spokesman David Mackie said: “Property in the UK is already over-taxed compared to our European neighbours, and the market in Scotland, as well as elsewhere in the UK, is clearly struggling to recover from the economic slowdown.

“Now that he has been granted these extra powers, it is the perfect opportunity for Alex Salmond to make full use of them and scrap the unfair slab structure of stamp duty. He should replace it with a fairer, more logical system that ditches the extreme jumps in taxation created by the current system and set by the UK Treasury.”

The Scottish Government should also scrap Home Reports, Mr Mackie added.

“Home Reports are widely seen as an extravagance in Scotland; they haven’t had their desired impact and it’s not too late to suspend the scheme,” he said.