Quote from Tide31:
No one that I have ever talked to or dealt with pays stamp tax in the UK (50 bp on sells) for the last 15 years at least. It's built into your account that every transaction on the LSE is a CFD (Contract for Differences). The brokers/banks are exempt from stamp, they buy it and you enter into an agreement to settle the 'difference' when you sell it. It is not a matter of 'if' it is being abolished in the UK, it is a matter of when. You see, there are some stupid people that do in fact still pay stamp in the UK to the tune of 3Bil GBP/ year.
That's entirely correct!
The idiots who bring up the UK as an example of a country with a transaction tax on stocks are just that, idiots!
Traders there pay NO tax on daytrading activities. In fact, most of the "professional" platforms have ways to 'designate' LSE transactions as all being 'CFDs' so you won't pay stamp duty.
Some brokers, however, like IB, have no way around that issue, which still leaves me puzzled.
So it appears most of the transaction tax being paid in the UK are by mom 'n pop bagholders and other entities which due to certain regulations are forced to pay. And even then, many are for *abolishing* the ripoff fee.
