What this archive covers
Articles here fall into four groups: Budget and policy announcements, HMRC statistics and receipts data, tribunal and court decisions that change how a rule is applied, and reform proposals that have been floated but not enacted. Each is dated and reflects the position at the time of writing.
News coverage is deliberately kept separate from the reference pages. If you want to know what the rules are right now rather than what changed and when, use the current stamp duty rates for 2026. For the sequence of past changes and the dates each took effect, see the history of stamp duty changes, which tracks every threshold and surcharge movement.
Proposals reported in the press are not law until they appear in a Finance Act. Where an article covers a proposal, it says so explicitly, and the rate pages are only updated once a change is actually enacted.