Stamp Duty Explained

This is a tax that you pay when you decide to buy property or you buy shares.

For a purchase under £125,000 then there is no stamp duty to pay on property, above that there is stamp duty, which moves up at a tiered rate.

For property between £125k and £250k you pay 1%, then 3% up to £500k property, and then 4% above the £500k mark - a nice bit of free money for the government, just what they like.

When it comes to shares, you will pay stamp duty at the rate of 0.5% when you buy shares.

It is stamp duty on shares that makes day trading the UK very hard to do compared to countries where the governments don't take tax on everything that you do; in many countries there's no stamp duty to be paid when dealing with shares and therefore it is easier to make quick returns for instance over the course of the day as you don't have to take into account the tax that has been paid out.