The Finance Bill 2000 implements the latest attempt to use taxation to cool the housing market.
Complex legislation complements a complex structure.
At first sight this is like a turkey voting for Christmas. So in practice, all eligible to make the election for the higher rate will do so. This will act as a disincentive for development companies who might wish to offload some of their partly developed landbank. They will instead find it attractive to carry out the full development themselves, even if that slows up the release of houses to the market. It is equally the case that if a development company has a large landbank, beyond its immediate requirements, from 2002 onwards it will be more attractive from a tax viewpoint for it to fully develop that landbank itself, rather than releasing part of it to other developers.