Extending the stamp duty holiday

The Chancellor announced in the Budget that the stamp duty exemption on house purchases below £175,000 will be extended until 1st January 2010.

The chancellor announced a holiday from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) in September 2008 exempting any purchases of residential property of not more than £175,000. The measure applied to acquisitions between 3rd September 2008 and 2nd September 2009 inclusive.

Legislation will be introduced to extend the increased threshold to land transactions where the effective date for SDLT is before 1st January 2010. Thereafter the SDLT threshold for residential property will revert to its previous value of £125,000.