The incidence of transaction taxes: Evidence from a stamp duty holiday

Timothy Besley, Neil Meads and Paolo Surico

Journal of Public Economics, 2014, vol. 119, issue C, 61-70

Abstract: This paper exploits the 2008–09 stamp duty holiday in the United Kingdom to estimate the incidence of a transaction tax on housing. The average reduction in the after-tax sale price is found to be around £900 against the backdrop of an average tax reduction of about £1500. While we estimate an increase in transactions of properties affected by the tax holiday around 8%, most of this effect appears to have reversed rapidly after the policy was withdrawn, suggesting mostly a short-term retiming of transactions. The findings are calibrated to a simple bargaining model to show they imply that about sixty percent of the surplus generated by the holiday accrued to buyers.

Keywords: Tax holiday; Surplus incidence; Surveyor's evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H22 R32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

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Working Paper: The Incidence of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from a Stamp Duty Holiday (2014)
Working Paper: The incidence of transaction taxes: evidence from a stamp duty holiday (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:119:y:2014:i:c:p:61-70

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.07.005

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