SNP’s stamp duty replacement costs buyers £30m

The SNP’s stamp duty replacement would have hit Scottish home-buyers for £30 million more than the UK system last year, new figures have revealed.

Tory leader Ruth Davidson in Colinton yesterday. Picture: Getty

Research commissioned by the Tories has revealed that, had the Scottish Government’s land and building transaction tax (LBTT) been in place in 2014, £193.8m would have been generated in tax. The calculation, made by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), was then compared with the amount that would have been raised had the UK government’s new stamp duty rules been in place in Scotland last year.

A total of £164.6m would have been raised had George Osborne’s reformed stamp duty applied in Scotland in 2014. The figures were released by the Conservatives as Scottish leader Ruth Davidson visited a house in the Colinton area of Edinburgh, which she claimed would be more expensive to buy if put on the market once LBTT is introduced.

Today sees the introduction of the new tax and the launch of Revenue Scotland, the new tax body which will administer it. The SPICe figures, which looked at property transactions last year, showed that homebuyers in Edinburgh would have accounted for nearly half the £30m difference. Ms Davidson said: “It’s a tax grab on Scottish home buyers.”

SNP MSP James Dornan said: “Scotland’s replacement to stamp duty will see 50 per cent of all household transactions exempted from tax altogether and result in 90 per cent of people being better or no worse off.”