If you are thinking about buying a property, you will first need to save a sizeable pot of cash to pay off the Chancellor. Stamp duty, for most people, is an unavoidable cost of moving; for the The Treasury, however, it is a nice little earner. Profits from stamp duty land tax, to give it its proper name, are set to rise by a third to £14.3 billion in 2007-8, leaving home movers £3.4 billion worse off than the previous year.

But what does it mean for you and how much does it cost? Here are ten stamp duty facts that every house buyer should know:

1/ 'Stamp duty land tax' must be paid by buyers on all transactions over £125,000. If the property's value is less than this, then you will be in the lucky minority which doesn't have to pay anything to the Chancellor.

2/ There are three different levels of stamp duty depending on the value of the house purchase - these are applied as flat rates: buyers of homes priced between £125,001 and £250,000 will have to pay 1% of the property's value in stamp duty. Homes costing between £250,001 and £500,000 attract a stamp duty rate of 3%; for homes costing in excess of £500,001 the tax is 4% of the value of the property.

3/ According to the Halifax, 19% of homes in England and Wales are valued above £250,000. Three per cent of properties fall into the 4% stamp duty band.

4/ If you are buying a property an area designated by the government as 'disadvantaged', you don't pay any stamp duty if the purchase price is £150,000 or less. To find out more on which areas qualify as disadvantaged, click here .

5/ In his last Budget as Chancellor, Gordon Brown kept the nil-rate threshold for stamp duty unchanged at £125,000, despite speculation that it would rise to £150,000.

6/ Increases in property prices means that fewer house purchases fall into the nil-rate stamp duty band. Two thirds of first-time buyers with mortgages must currently pay stamp duty.

7/ Had the stamp duty threshold risen at the same rate as house-price inflation since 1993, it would now stand at £206,000, according to Nationwide. The average cost of a home is £175,554 - an increase of 9.5% on last year.

8/ In the 2007 Budget it was announced that carbon-neutral homes under £500,000 would be made free of stamp duty until 2012. For properties valued above £500,000 a £9,000 stamp duty discount is applied. However, some industry experts say that these tax breaks will benefit few: according to Smartnewhomes.com, there are only 27 carbon-neutral homes in the UK.

9/ With the highest average property prices in the UK, London buyers hardest by stamp duty bills. Buyers in the capital pay on average £8,615 in stamp duty, compared with £1,795 five years ago. Property values in London now average just over £280,000 according to Nationwide.

10/ As the buyer of the property, you are responsible for completing the land transaction return and paying stamp duty, but, in practice, your solicitor will usually handle this for you and send it to the Inland Revenue on your behalf.

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