Vol. 508 No. 3
195 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Finance if he will abolish stamp duty in a case where a purchaser has sold his first house after two years in order to buy a second larger house to accommodate his family; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19060/99]
Stamp duty rates for all residential property were reduced significantly by the Government as part of the package of taxation measures in the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1998, arising out of the first Bacon report on house prices. This reduction in stamp duty rates has been of benefit to all residential property purchasers.
In addition, there is no stamp duty on the sale of most new residential property where the purchaser is an owner occupier. Thus if the purchaser, in the case referred to, were to buy a larger new house, he would either pay no stamp duty at all where the house is not greater than 125 square metres, or if this new house is more than 125 square metres, he would pay stamp duty only on the site cost or a quarter of the value of the house, whichever is the greater.
Given that I recently halved the rate of stamp duty at the lower end of the residential property market, making a further change to the code in the manner suggested may be absorbed by the sellers thus being of no benefit in practice to purchasers. Consequently, I have no plans to make any further changes to the stamp duty code in this regard.
