Takings from stamp duty will hit the £8 billion level for 2014/15 - comfortably exceeding previous record levels.

The Halifax figures say the recovery in the housing market has led to a massive increase in the takings, beating the previous record level set in 2007/08 by over £1.3 bn.

Stamp duty overhaul

Stamp duty levels were changed in December from a single rate of tax to a progressive structure.

Now buyers only pay the tax on the part of the property that falls within each stamp duty tax band instead of paying it on the whole value.

Under the new system, the stamp duty on an average property costing £259,708 would be £2,985 – down from £7,791 under the old system.

While individuals are paying less, the increase in overall sales and the rising property prices means that the total income from stamp duty has risen.

Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker said: "The economy has been steadily improving now for over 18 months and the pick-up in housing sales volumes is reflective of that.

"For the vast majority of buyers the changes in SDLT have made transacting cheaper and therefore more palatable, allowing smaller levels of savings to be accumulated. The progressive system also removes the major slabs from the market.

"Due to volume increases, contrary to initial thinking that the changes would result in a lower tax haul, the opposite has proven correct."

Majority of sales liable

As the lower level of stamp duty has remained at £125,000, price rises mean that more homes have become liable for the tax.

Halifax says its analysis of Land Registry sales figures for England and Wales show that around three-quarters of all home buyers were liable to pay stamp duty.

In London, nearly every transaction (98%) was liable for stamp duty. This dropped to just 47% of all transactions in the north of England.

In fact, there was a north/south divide in the number of people paying stamp duty.

In the South East, South West and East Anglia 92%, 88% and 83% of transactions respectively were liable. This dropped to below 60% for Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West.

Scottish changes

Scotland recently announced that it would be introducing its own version of stamp duty in April 2015.

The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax will also be progressive with the low level starting at £145,000, where people will be charged 2% on any value over this amount.

They will be charged 5% of anything over £250,001, 10% on any value over £325,000 and, at the highest level of properties valued over £750,000, buyers will be charged 12%.