Buying a home to be made cheaper as sales tax is cut (update)

The special tax on house purchases – overdrachtsbelasting or conveyancing tax – is to be reduced from 6% to 2% for a year in an effort to boost the housing market.


Ministers agreed to cut the tax at Friday’s cabinet meeting, the last before the summer recess. The tax cut will be backdated to June 15.
According to the Telegraaf, the measure will save home buyers €8,000 on the cost of a €200,000 house. The tax raises €3.5bn for the treasury every year.
Real estate agents have welcomed the move, saying it will help more first time buyers take a step on the housing ladder.
Banks
To compensate for the lost income, put at some €1.2bn, the government is to impose an extra tax on banks in the form a new tax on profits. The save-as-you-earn (spaarloon) savings scheme will also be phased out earlier than planned.
Details of the tax still have to be worked out, but it will be brought in next year, finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said after the cabinet meeting. France, Germany and Britain also support an extra tax on banks, De Jager said.
This is important because otherwise Dutch banks could become less competitive and this should be avoided, the minister said.
Banks are not happy at the extra tax, saying it will damage the economy. ‘Every euro which goes on the bank tax cannot be used for corporate loans or for mortgages,’ Boele Staal chairman of the national banking association, said in a statement.
‘This plan has been made too quickly and has not been looked at for its likely effects… Nor has there been any discussion with the banking sector,’ he said.

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