28 March 2013

Stamping Out Duty

While we are on the subject of stamp duty, this is a tax where I would favour extending the base. Stamp duty is charged on the sale of shares at 0.5%, however it is not levied on the sale of corporate bonds or other forms of securities. This seems unfair. As the chancellor said in his budget speech:
Many observers of the British tax system complain that it has long biased debt financing over equity investment.
So today I am extending stamp duty to apply to debt financing through bonds on an equal basis to shares. No he didn't say that. He said this:
So today I am abolishing altogether stamp duty on shares traded on growth markets such as AIM.
So while the rest of the world thinks that taxing financial transactions will help to stabilise their economies, Britain has a different approach.
In parts of Europe they’re introducing a financial transaction tax. Here in Britain we’re getting rid of one.
Labour should promise to extend stamp duty to sales of all traded securities equally, including shares, bonds, derivatives, mortgage backed securities, collateralised debt obligations ...

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