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Fri 04 Apr 2007Stamp duty reform must be substantial and well-timedEconomics:With government action in the offing, it's time to revisit the issue of stamp duty. The difference is that this time, the philosophers of the debate need to stand aside for the engineers: passionate argument needs to be replaced by precise and accurate policy making, writes Marc Coleman.From a tax that originally, affected relatively few - and only genuinely highly priced properties - stamp duty grew as a source of revenue for government as house prices mushroomed.