Simon's blog

The wait is over. Today the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, finally announced his highly anticipated plans for stamp duty. It’s not going to be abolished as some people hoped.

Instead, stamp duty will be exempted on residential property purchases up to £175,000 where the transaction is completed between 3^rd September 2008 and 3^rd September 2009. After that it’s back to normal, unless the government decides to change the rules again.

Well, probably not

In a bid to restart the flagging UK housing market Alistair Darling, the chancellor, is considering abolishing stamp duty.

At least that's what a number of newspapers reported yesterday, The Sun broke the story.

Or as a cheaper alternative, for the government, he may allow people to defer paying stamp duty when they buy a house for a few years.