Charlie Elphicke – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlie Elphicke on 2014-03-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department made before the 2012 Budget of the effect on stamp duty land tax and inheritance tax receipts of the introduction of a so-called mansion tax designed to raise a net sum of £2 billion per annum.

David Gauke

The number of residential properties in the UK valued at more than £2 million was estimated before Budget 2012 to be around 55,000.

Before Budget 2012, an assessment of the average annual payment required from each property above £2 million in order to raise a net sum of £2 billion per annum was not made.

On 1 July 2013, during Report stage of the Finance Bill, I referred to “a simple calculation arrived at by dividing £2 billion by 55,000 (an internal HMRC estimate of the number of properties valued at over £2 million) to give a ‘mean’ average of £36,000.”

A so-called mansion tax would depress stamp duty land tax and inheritance tax yields. The exact impact would be dependent on the rates and bands chosen.