David Alexander

The firm said that the Scottish Government received £8.4m during June alone from 100 home buyers in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT).

A further £22.6 million was paid by 1,360 buyers last month working out at an average of £16,617 per property. In total 1,460 buyers contributed £31m in tax purchasing properties worth over £325,001 in June equivalent to 82% of the total money collected, excluding additional dwelling supplements (ADS), that month in LBTT payments.

Some buyers will have paid even more as these figures exclude those who were liable for the additional dwelling supplement which amounted to a further £15.1m in LBTT. An additional dwelling supplement of 4% on top of LBTT is paid by those purchasing a second home, property investors, and landlords. For these purchases, for example, a £350,000 property is liable to a £22,350 tax charge.

Over the last 12 months LBTT has raised £605.1m for the Scottish Government which is a 64.5% increase on the pre-pandemic figure of £367.9m to June 2019 and is 35.8% up on the £445.3m figure for the same period last year.

David Alexander, chief executive officer of DJ Alexander Scotland, commented: “We can see that the property boom has been a nice little earner for the Scottish Government. With just 100 buyers paying £8.4m and a further 1,360 homeowners shelling out a further £22.6m it is clear that a few people are paying a lot for the privilege of living in Scotland.”

“Given that the higher rate of tax kicks in at a relatively modest £325,001 it is unlikely that the individuals contributing these substantial sums are really the very well off. Instead, they will be the backbone of the workforce such as nurses, teachers, office workers who are being asked to pay substantially more in property tax than their English counterparts and are then told that those with the broadest shoulders should contribute the most.”

He continued: “The higher taxation extends to everyone including first time buyers as nothing is paid in England on the first £300,000 purchase price whereas in Scotland LBTT starts at £175,000. For ordinary homebuyers, a 10% charge is applied above £325,001 in Scotland whereas this rate does not begin until £925,001 in England.”

“There is more than a suspicion that the Scottish Government regards the homebuyer as a cash cow to be milked as much as possible to raise substantial revenues. Nobody would deny that it is legitimate to charge a tax on buying a home, but it is questionable whether such high levels of tax on property purchases is viable or acceptable in the long term. We want Scotland to be a welcoming environment which attracts the brightest and the best and allows them to build a life without excessively high taxation on the homes they buy.”