STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY

Everyone loves holidays and everyone loves stamps or at least they did back in the 70’s when for a 10 year old, collecting postage stamps was the equivalent of having an X-Box.   I remember the excitement of a letter landing on the doormat with a brightly coloured stamp on it, carefully peeling it away from the envelope and sticking into a photo album made from a ring-binder with graph paper pages.  Those were the days.

Postage stamps - almost a thing of the past

Fast forward 40 years when postage stamps are almost obsolete and the only thing folks are interested in is stamp duty, a tax payable around 14 days after you buy a property.  How much you pay depends on whether you’re a first time buyer and the price of the property but for those of us who have already been once around the property block, there’s no escaping this tax.

A stamp duty holiday is an unexpected windfall for us and home buyers everywhere.  On our purchase price of £349,000 we’d be stumping up a whopping £7,450 and believe me when I say, it kills me to have to hand over that amount of my hard earned cash to Chancellor Roland Rat just for buying somewhere to live.  So you can imagine my joy at having my prayers for stamp duty absolution answered by the Tax God.  Thank you Mr Sunak for your grand gesture as it will make a big difference not just in our lives but for everyone else too.  

According to the front page of The Times, I see the Chancellor is now moonlighting as a waiter at the Toby Carvery to do his bit to save the nation.  Slice of Covid Pie anyone?

Double covid burger with virus fritters followed by PPE cake with anti-bac custard