Residential stamp duty property transactions between April and August were up 29% compared to the same period last year, according to HMRC.
Overall receipts for April to August totalled £8.9bn, which is £2bn higher than in the same period the previous year.
The increase is due to the lingering effects of the stamp duty holiday which ended in September last year.
Stamp duty receipts to August reached £10.6bn, analysis by Coventry Building Society reveals.
The amount of tax paid when buying property is 39% or £3bn higher than the same period in 2021.
In August, £1.6bn was paid by buyers, the second highest amount in any month on record, with the highest being £1.7bn in December last year.
George Osborne last changed the rates and thresholds for stamp duty in December 2014.
Since then, average property prices in England have rocketed by more than £100,000 from £203,346 to £311,583, Coventry’s analysis shows.
This morning it has been reported that new prime minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are considering cutting stamp duty.
It is believed the cut will be announced on 23 September, as part of her cabinet’s mini budget.
Coventry Building Society head of intermediary relationships Jonathan Stinton comments: “If the rumours of a cut to Stamp Duty are true, it’s good news for homebuyers who are being squeezed harder and harder by the tax on buying a home.”
“Buying an average-priced home in England now comes with a Stamp Duty kicker of £5,579. That’s more than three times the £1,566 tax bill for an average-priced home in 2014 when the thresholds and rates were last set.”
Hargreaves Lansdown senior pensions and retirement analyst Helen Morrissey says: “Stamp duty receipts continue to surge, topping a whopping £8.9bn between April and August this year. This is not only a sign of a housing market in rude health but also down to the lingering after-effects of the stamp duty holiday, which ended in September last year.”
“Whether we continue to see such steep increases in stamp duty over the coming months remains to be seen as the effects of this holiday are stripped out of the figures and soaring interest rates and cost of living crunch put a dampener on our plans to buy that dream home.”
“There are also growing signs that homes are taking longer to sell which could also mean more would-be sellers are putting off the decision to put their homes on the market – this means we could soon see fewer sales feeding into lower receipts in the coming months.”