Britain considers moratorium on stamp duty

LONDON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is considering a moratorium on Britain's stamp duty tax to breath new life into a slumping housing market, sources said.

The tax is paid by property buyers and set at 1 percent for homes selling between roughly $250,000 and $500,000, increasing to 4 percent for homes worth nearly $1 million, the Times of London reported.

The tax has netted the government about $60 billion since 1998, the newspaper reported.

The British Treasury is working out the details of a stamp tax suspension and will present Brown with a report when he returns from the Olympic Games at the end of the month, the Times reported.

Tories in Britain have supported a repeal of the stamp duty for first-time buyers and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has said some changes were possible.

"Stamp duty is always a factor when people buy and sell houses but we need to make sure that we support the financial system, too," he said in an interview in July.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International