[SecondHandTofu]

You haven't actually cited any studies, just "I haven't heard anyone say anything".

We have transaction taxes in the UK, on shares (stamp duty) and on property (stamp duty land tax). They are awful. SDLT used to be lower, around 1%, but it crept up as it's an easy tax to raise politically, the top band is now at 12%.

[The government's own modelling of SDLT is incredible](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responsiveness-of...) A 1% change in the effective tax rate results in almost a 12% change in the number of commercial transactions and a 5-7% change in the number of residential transactions. This effect still happens at lower thresholds, it's just less dramatic, but it's still distortionary. If you tax something, you get less of it, and why do you want people to move less?

If you prefer anecdotes, these days it's very common to rent in the UK until you can buy a longer term home, rather than buying a starter home. I know very few people who _haven't_ done exactly that, you don't want to pay SDLT on somewhere you'll only live for a few years.

Stamp duty on shares (0.5%) is also widely panned by experts: https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/15/how-to-reform-stamp-duty...

It raises very little, distorts the market hugely, it is a large reason that companies choose to list overseas.

Sales taxes are a (bad) form of consumption tax (VAT is better.) Consumption taxes are broadly good, the problem with transaction taxes are when you are purchasing an asset in a market.