Stamp Duty receipts drop just 6% in the past year, despite holiday

Stamp Duty receipts for the year to the end of February fell just six per cent despite the high profile SDLT holiday running from early July. 

Data from the HMRC Tax Receipts and National Insurance Contributions division show stamp duty receipts at £775m last month, £49m less than February 2020 when the figure was £824m.

HMRC is now on course to recoup £8.2 billion in stamp duty this tax year, despite the holiday on duty payable on most properties selling up to £500,000.

Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society, says: “The stamp duty holiday has really helped to fuel the market over the past few months. However, the average home buyer isn’t going to have contributed one penny in stamp duty.

“These numbers are a sign of a healthy market across the board where higher value homes, second homes and rental properties [none of which would have benefitted entirely from the stamp duty holiday] are also exchanging hands.”

Another HMRC study released last month says stamp duty receipts in the final quarter of 2020 were 47 per cent higher than the previous quarter, but 16 per cent lower than the fourth quarter of 2019.

The Revenue said: “The change in receipts will have mainly been impacted by the introduction of the stamp duty holiday.”