HOMEBUYERS in Oxfordshire spent £75m on stamp duty in the last financial year.

And a report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has revealed most of the money was raised from people paying a higher rate of the controversial tax.

When a house is bought the buyer has to pay a levy, between one and seven per cent depending on the value of the home. People who buy homes for more than £250,000 pay three per cent, while the seven per cent tax is levied on homes which sell for more than £2m.

In Oxfordshire, a total of £75,749,453 was raised in stamp duty between April 1, 2012, and March 31 this year from 8,370 transactions.

The highest amount was paid out in South Oxfordshire, where £21,750,307 of the £22,990,258 raised was from people paying three per cent or more on top of the price of their new home.

In Oxford, £17,130,611 of the £17,914,363 raised was from people paying more than three per cent.

TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Sinclair said: “Owning your own home is an important milestone, but for many families it seems harder and harder to reach.

“Ministers have done nothing to ease the burden imposed by stamp duty, which is an unfair double tax that gets in the way of would-be first-time buyers and others thinking about moving.

“Instead they have made things worse with new thresholds and new, higher rates. The Government needs to act.”