40% tax on house sales dismissed |
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Mon, 14 Mar 2005 01:00
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The Treasury has put to rest any rumours that the chancellor Gordon Brown was planning a 40 per cent tax on house sales.
Conservative party’s Michael Howard had said that Brown was in the process of filling a £10 billion deficit in the economy, by taxing saleable properties.
| But Gordon Brown spokesman dismissed the claim as sheer nonsense. He said it would be madness to impose capital gains tax on saleable homes as it will completely destroy Britain’s housing market. So it is out of question that such tax will be introduced that will put at risk the stability of the economy, the spokesman said.
Conservative George Osborne nonetheless feels that Treasury has been working on secret plans to introduce a sizeable tax on saleable properties, after its Chief Secretary Paul Boateng failed to rule out the measure when questioned in Parliament recently.
Osborne said his party now has clearest indication that the new tax will be introduced as soon as they win the election.
Capital gains tax, at present, is only charged on second homes.
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