Editorial: ​Reform stamp duty and council tax at same time in order to help more people get on the property ladder

​Last week a think tank said that the UK has run out of “other people” to tax.

The group, Tax Policy Associates, made a point that this newspaper has made for years – you cannot spend as much as the UK does on every aspect of life, at immense cost and leading to rising debt, and keep pretending that other people and organisations will pay.

Take the top 1% of the population – everyone wants to tax them because 99% of people are not in that category. Tax Policy Associates pointed out that the top 1% already pays 27% of income tax.

Northern Ireland is good at thinking other people or groups can be taxed – eg that we can impose ruinous rates on big businesses, in order to shield homeowners – ie voters – from paying more for anything, such as water.

Amidst this political cynicism, a committee of MPs has called for reform stamp duty to help more people get on the property ladder. This should take place alongside a reform of council tax.

This is a good idea. Stamp duty in England and NI is already favourable to first-time buyers.

For example, a first-time buyer purchasing a £300,000 property pays nothing in stamp duty while other buyers pay £5,000.

Stamp duty is now very high, particularly for more expensive properties, over £900,000.

Council tax for such properties is far too low, particularly in England. If stamp duty is slashed then prosperous older homeowners are more likely to downsize, making larger houses available to young families.

But this is not a something-for-nothing change or an instance of taxing-others. It is a combination that shifts taxation from the moment of a home purchase, based on cost, to the value of a home while you live in it.

The former disadvantages people who move and benefits prosperous people in big houses. The latter is a fairer tax based on actual assets. It is not a wealth tax as such, but a fairer way of taxing property.