Publishing an analysis of the money raised through property taxation, the low tax campaign group called for stamp duty should be abolished to ease the UK’s property tax burden.
Most of the increase in 2014-15 was from additional stamp duty revenue, which rose from £1.5bn in a year when wide-ranging changes were made to the levy. The rest of the £1.8bn (2.8%) increase was from business rates, while council tax receipts fell by around £100m.
According to the group, the UK the heaviest property taxes in the OECD in 2014 at 4.1% of GDP (on the OECD’s measure which includes stamp duty on shares and inheritance tax), followed by France (3.9%), Belgium (3.5%) and Canada (3.1%).
The TPA called for the government to abolish stamp duty and ease planning restrictions to ease the pressure on taxpayers.
Chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: “We often hear about the impact of high property taxes on the overheated property London housing market, but the truth is that they are a massive burden in every region of the UK.
“High rates of stamp duty, business rates and Council Tax are a significant barrier to getting on the housing ladder or growing a business – and this is exacerbated by restrictive planning policies which mean firms can’t expand and we are building nowhere near enough homes.”
Isaby called on the chancellor Phillip Hammond to cut stamp duty in half with a view to abolishing it entirely, and said “politicians must also ease the planning rules so that we can finally start building the number of homes we need.”
