Martin Lewis gives stamp duty advice ahead of alleged cut

Financial expert Martin Lewis has issued advice to those due to pay stamp duty ahead of the alleged cut. Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to announce plans to cut stamp duty on Friday in a bid to drive economic growth.

According to The Times, the Prime Minister and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have been working on plans to cut stamp duty for around a month. Ms Truss hopes that, by cutting stamp duty, more people will be able to move and first-time buyers will be able to get on the property ladder.

On today's instalment of Good Morning Britain, presenter and financial journalist Martin Lewis gave advice to viewers amid the rising cost of living. Ahead of Friday's expected announcement, Martin's co-presenter Susanna Reid said to him: "There will be plenty of people right now who are in the middle of buying a property.

Read more: Martin Lewis issues urgent advice for anyone with a credit card or loan

"They might be about to exchange, they might be about to complete. They might be thinking, 'Well, if I'm going to get a cut in the price I'm going to pay because stamp duty's going to be cut, should I delay?'."

Susanna then asked Martin: "If it's announced on Friday, does it come in on Friday?"

The MoneySavingExpert founder replied: "It could, but it doesn't have to. If there were to be a stamp duty [cut], and we don't know so be very careful changing your plans about 'I don't knows', then they could say that this is with immediate effect or they could say this will start on the first of April next year - they could start it on the first of January.

"They have the flexibility to do that. Stamp duty, from memory, is crystalised on what is called the effective transaction date, which is generally, but not always, the date of completion.

"It’s the point at which you complete. So, there may be an argument to say if you were due to complete on Thursday, you might want to have a nice warm word with the person that you’re buying on and say ‘Is there any chance we could hold it off until next Monday, just in case?',

"Because if you were due to pay stamp duty that would be... exchange is not part of this its the effective transaction date but there can be earlier completion if it was a substantial transaction. 90% of it was completed but it wasn't fully completed.

"Speak to your solicitor is the best advice, rather than relying on this. If you're thinking about doing that, talk to your solicitor and listen to them first to see what the impact would be. But if it does drop on Friday there's a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts'."

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