Stamp Duty Land Tax

The main surprise in this year's Budget from a stamp taxes viewpoint was the overnight removal of the exemption for non-residential land in disadvantaged areas. This move is estimated to have cost property investors several hundred million pounds and it is therefore understandable that the Chancellor should overlook the mention of such a measure in his Budget speech even though the exemption was officially announced three times before its introduction two years ago.

Another surprise was the inclusion from 1 July 2005 of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) arrangements conferring a tax advantage within the tax scheme disclosure rules introduced in last year's Finance Act. There was a headline-grabbing but...