As someone who may never have bought property in the United Kingdom before, you might be somewhat shocked with the stamp duty of property that you will be forced to pay upon closing. In addition to the many other fees and taxes that you will have to pay in order to take possession of a piece of property, you will also be made to pay a seemingly ancient tax, called a stamp duty of property, to the local government. In the past, the stamp duty of property was paid to the local town or county in exchange for providing the services that made the entire transaction legal. They took the final transaction papers and stamped them, and the buyer paid them a small fee in exchange for this service. Unfortunately, local governments found this to be a great way to create revenue, and stamp duty has continued to get higher and higher. In most cases, it is a flat percentage of the final sales price of the house, and when you are considering that it can be anywhere from 1 to 5 per cent (and sometimes even more than that! ), it is an awful lot of money. Generally speaking, the higher the home’s value, the higher the percentage will be, though it does vary from town to town. The bad news is that as a buyer, you are the sole person responsible for paying stamp duty on property, though the good news is that it isn’t quite as cut and dry as some people will make you think. There are certain exemptions to the law that can enable you to buy a home, a piece of property, or an investment property without paying the full amount of stamp duty, or perhaps without paying any at all. Because the laws regarding stamp fees are so specific to the area where you are buying your property, and they are constantly changing, a good person to have on your side is a stamp duty mitigation expert. They know the laws and will be able to help guide you through your purchase so that you pay the least amount of money possible. Many of the loopholes or ways of getting around paying stamp fees on property are well known, such as by being a first-time home buyer, but there are also others that will help you get the largest amount of savings. For instance, there are well-known property thresholds in each area and if you buy a home over that amount, you could see your property duty skyrocket. Therefore, it may be worth scaling down your home purchase in order to save tens of thousands of pounds on stamp duty. Unfortunately, this is considered to be an unfair tax and one that prevents many people from buying homes. But with the right expert on your side, you could be able to minimize your tax debt and buy the piece of property that you want, where you want, at a price that you can afford.