Homebuyers hit by £1bn tax - papers 7 Sept

A combination of higher house prices and an increase in the number of properties sold caused stamp duty receipts to soar, according to an analysis of Land Registry statistics by Portman Building Society. Despite the threshold for this tax being lifted from £120,000 to £125,000 in March, the average homebuyer paid £3,735 stamp duty in the second quarter of this year, or nearly 6% more than in the quarter before. The paper quotes a spokesman for Portman as saying: "During the same period, average house prices went up by less than 4% but there was a 23% increase in the number of properti...