An interesting idea


From today's Guardian:

Stamp duty could be switched from home buyers to sellers to help young people get on the housing ladder, Peter Hain, a candidate for Labour's deputy leadership, proposed yesterday.

He told the Simon Mayo programme on Radio Five Live yesterday: "We should consider whether it would be more appropriate for the seller of a property to pay the stamp duty rather than the buyer. This would exempt first-time buyers from the charge. A move like this would be revenue-neutral, but would be an enormous boost to young people."

I'll reserve comment. Greg Mankiw has more, on a post documenting similar thinking in Illinois.

Thanks to Shane for the pointer.

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