26 November 2025
If you are covering the news that new listings in the UK will benefit from a three-year stamp duty reserve tax holiday, please find below a comment from Amisha Chohan, head of equity research at Quilter Cheviot:
“Today’s measures from the Chancellor are aimed at stimulating the UK’s capital markets, but in reality will have a muted effect. Rachel Reeves announced that new listings in the UK will see a temporary holiday of three years on stamp duty reserve tax. Stamp duty on shares has often one of those taxes that is forgotten about after the likes of capital gains tax, but consecutive Chancellors have refused to reform it given its impact on the tax take. It means investments are effectively taxed twice if they are not held in a tax efficient product, with stamp duty taking effect on purchase and capital gains tax on exit. When you add in dividend tax, and potential inheritance tax liabilities too, and the total take on shareholdings is significant.
“The government is rightly looking at ways to boost the UK’s markets, but a much more effective reform would be to abolish it completely. Having a three-year holiday for new listings is unlikely to move the dial. Investors, particularly institutional ones, think in time periods of five years or in some cases far more. As such, while well meaning, it is unlikely to have a significant impact unless there is certainty it would not return. Furthermore, this does very little for companies already listed on the stock exchange. We are seeing companies move listings overseas or go private, and without further intervention this move isn’t going to prevent that. Going further and removing stamp duty on shares entirely would bring much greater certainty to UK markets and drive more overseas investment.”
