MSPs have passed legislation to replace stamp duty for property sales in a landmark vote at Holyrood.
The Scottish Parliament unanimously backed the Land and Building Transactions Tax (Scotland) Bill, which is aimed at addressing inequalities created by the “slab” structure of stamp duty thresholds.
It will allow Holyrood to set and collect a proportion of its own revenue for the first time when the new charge comes into effect.
Finance secretary John Swinney said: “Land and Building Transactions Tax (LBTT) represents a significant improvement on the tax that it replaces, the UK’s Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT).
“We will do away with the nonsense of the slab structure of SDLT in which three times as much tax is paid when a house value nudges above the £250,000 threshold.
“This has caused market distortions and leads to the false recording of house prices in an effort to avoid paying tax at the higher rate.
“The LBTT will solve this in Scotland at a stroke, by substituting a progressive structure where only the amount above the threshold will incur tax at the higher rate.”
Under stamp duty, a difference in property selling price of just £1 can lead to thousands of pounds in additional tax for the buyer.
The new charge which will apply to all property sales from April 2015 onwards will include a zero rate and at least two other bands.
A key part of the new system is that only the proportion of the price above the tax thresholds will be liable for the higher rate of tax.
Mr Swinney has already said he will not announce the rates and tax bands for the new system until September 2014 at the earliest.
Labour’s Ken Macintosh said there were details which still needed to be set out, including the timescale for the publication of the new tax rates.
“I hope the Cabinet Secretary will bear in mind that business in particular is clamouring for greater certainty in this area,” he said.