The Budget came and went with little fanfare as far as landlords, the buy-to-let market and private rental sector (PRS) was concerned, but documents that came out of the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) after the event revealed that a new challenge might well have been avoided.
The OBR documents suggest the Chancellor and Treasury were seriously considering a further increase in the stamp duty charge for additional property owners – which includes landlords – from its current 3% level to 4%. Indeed, those very same documents say the Budget introduced such a measure which would again suggest that the decision to reject this option was taken relatively late in the day.
What perhaps put a hold on this increase was the suggestion that it could have had an impact on tax take because presumably landlords, and other additional property owners, would be put off from buying by extra stamp duty costs and, transaction levels dropping would reduce overall stamp duty tax revenue.
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