Scottish Conservatives Propose Tax Cut for Home Buyers

People buying homes of up to £500,000 should get a tax cut and purchases below £140,000 should incur no tax at all, according to the Scottish Conservatives. The Tories have called on the left-wing'' SNP Government to revise its new 10% levy on homes above £250,000 - which it has described asa tax on aspiration''.

It will propose a new tax band between £250,000 and £500,000 of 5% in its Scottish Budget negotiations. The party will also call for the tax free threshold to be raised from £125,000 to £140,000, removing 3,000 homes from the tax burden. The Scottish Government could afford the tax cut because the reduction to its block grant from Westminster will be lower than originally budgeted for, it said.

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said: We are about helping people who want to get on in life.This is a tax cut for families and first-time buyers who want to get on the property ladder. And it's also a tax cut for people wanting to move up the property ladder.The SNP has to act now. Scottish families are in danger of having to pay a heavy tax on home-buying purely because this left-wing SNP Government thinks it knows best about how to spend our money. We cannot have a situation where ordinary families are paying higher tax rates than the rest of the UK for no good reason.This is affordable, it's fair and John Swinney now needs to change his ill-judged plans for a tax on aspiration. He needs to join us in helping low and middle-income people who dream of owning their own home, or of getting a bigger house for their families.''