EU tax move ‘will penalise first time buyers’

Sarah O'Grady writing in today’s Daily Express says the European Union wants to put tax on the sale of new homes in the UK.

An EU plan to slap VAT on new homes will send prices soaring, experts warned yesterday.

Brussels quietly issued a consultation document that proposes scrapping the current zero VAT rating..

The move to charge the full 20 per cent is part of a plan to standardise tax rates across Europe. It would drive up the average price of a new home by £48,000 from £238,000 to £286,000 and have a catastrophic impact on the UK.

The huge increase would price people out of the market, make it even more difficult to get a mortgage and bring the building industry to its knees.

Only about 130,000 homes were built across Britain last year – a historic low. Any reduction in numbers would exacerbate the country’s housing crisis.

..The EU’s Consultation Paper, “Review of existing legislation on VAT reduced rates”

It is the second attack on the Housing Market in the last few months

A crippling EU regulation that could have damaged the UK’s buy-to-let mortgage market has now been averted thanks to intense lobbying by the National Landlords Association.