Stamp Duty

⚠ This is England and Northern Ireland only. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax — different bands, different thresholds, and neither is Stamp Duty. Running a Scottish or Welsh purchase through this gives a confident number from the wrong tax. Use the LBTT calculator or the LTT calculator instead.

⚠ And the three differ in structure, not only in numbers. England surcharges every band for an additional property; Scotland charges a flat percentage of the whole price; Wales uses a completely separate ladder. No two of the three answers can be worked out from each other.

It is sliced, not a single rate

Each band's rate applies only to the part of the price inside it, the way Income Tax works. It has been that way since December 2014, but the older version — where crossing a threshold re-rated the whole price — is still what people expect. That is why the bands are listed above: so the total can be checked a line at a time against the table on gov.uk.

⚠ The surcharges start at the first pound

The 5% for owning another residential property is added to every band, including the one charged at nothing. So a £100,000 second home pays £5,000 where a first home pays nothing at all. It does not apply at all below £40,000.

The 2% non-resident surcharge works the same way and stacks with it, so a non-resident buying an additional property pays 7% on top of every band.

⚠ First-time buyer relief is all or nothing

It disappears entirely above the price cap rather than tapering, so two purchases a pound apart can be £5,000 apart in tax. That is a genuine cliff, and it is the one place where the instinct that a threshold re-rates everything turns out to be right.

Everyone buying together must be a first-time buyer. One person who has owned a home before removes the relief for all of them.

Replacing your main residence

The additional property surcharge does not apply if the purchase replaces your main residence and the old one was sold within 36 months. But if you have not sold on the day you complete, you pay the surcharge and claim it back — so the answer this page gives for "additional property" is the right one for that day even when it is not the final cost.

What this does not cover

Non-residential and mixed-use property, which has its own lower rates. Leasehold purchases, where the rent is taxed as well as the premium. Shared ownership, where there is a choice between paying on the full market value now or in stages. Linked transactions and buying six or more properties at once. Companies and trusts, which pay a flat 17% above a threshold. Multiple dwellings relief, which was abolished in June 2024 and still appears in a great deal of advice.

Where these figures come from

Every rate above is read from a dated rate file rather than written into the page, and each one is checked against the gov.uk page it came from. How these numbers are kept right sets out the whole process.

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