New property tax rates planned for Scotland will result in half of all households paying no tax, it has been claimed. A further 40,000 buyers will also pay less on the purchase of a new home.

The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) is to replace the UK's Stamp Duty Land Tax from April 2015.

The Scottish Government has said the marginal rates will provide additional benefit to first-time buyers and those at the lower end of the housing market, ensuring that the tax charged is "proportionate to people's ability to pay".

When the new rates are introduces, no-one will pay tax on properties costing less than £145,000 after the threshold was increased. However, for those purchasing more expensive properties, they will have to pay more tax. For example, a marginal rate of 12% will apply to people buying houses costing more than £750,000 compared to the previous amount of £1m.

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Announcing the changes, Deputy First Minister John Swinney added that rates will range from 2% up to 12%, depending on the price of a property; and said that the new changes would mean half of all household purchases would be free of tax, while some 40,000 buyers would pay less tax.

He said: "The measures I am proposing today send a very clear message.

"The priorities set out in the Draft Budget reflected those we established in the Government Economic Strategy but were influenced by the aspirations so tangibly expressed in the Referendum campaign, a desire to live in more prosperous and much fairer country than we do today.

"In exercising its first judgements on national taxes, this Government has put fairness, equity and the ability to pay at the heart of what it has done."

(JP/IT)