Stamp duty UK calculator: which of the three UK transfer taxes you are actually paying

How to get to a number you can rely on

1. Find out which tax you are in. Land in England or Northern Ireland is Stamp Duty Land Tax. Land in Scotland is Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. Land in Wales is Land Transaction Tax. A transfer of shares is Stamp Duty or Stamp Duty Reserve Tax and has nothing to do with where the property market is.
2. Fix the chargeable consideration. The tax is charged on what you give for the property, which is usually the price but can also include debt taken on, works, goods or services. Getting that figure wrong is the commonest reason a calculated number and a filed return disagree.
3. Apply the bands to the portions, never to the whole price. All three land taxes are charged in slices. You work out the tax within each band on the part of the price that falls inside it, then add the slices together. One percentage applied to the whole price is always the wrong answer.
4. Check the surcharges and the reliefs before you commit. An additional dwelling, a company buyer, a non-resident buyer or a first-time buyer all move the answer, and some of them move it further than the main bands do. These sit on top of the calculation rather than inside it.

The three land taxes, and what decides which one applies

Geography decides, not the seller, the lender or the solicitor. A purchase of land or a building in England or Northern Ireland is charged to Stamp Duty Land Tax under the Finance Act 2003. The same purchase in Scotland is charged to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, administered by Revenue Scotland. In Wales it is Land Transaction Tax, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority.

The three were designed separately and they have drifted apart. The nil rate bands differ, the surcharge for an additional dwelling differs, first-time buyer treatment differs, and the deadline for filing and paying differs. A calculator built for one of them returns a confidently wrong number for the other two.

How the bands actually work

Each tax charges a rate on a portion of the price rather than a rate on the price. Finance Act 2003 section 55 sets out the SDLT tables directly: for residential land 0% on so much of the consideration as does not exceed £125,000, 2% on the portion up to £250,000, 5% on the portion up to £925,000, 10% on the portion up to £1,500,000 and 12% on the remainder.

Non-residential and mixed land has its own table in the same section, with 0% up to £150,000, 2% on the portion up to £250,000 and 5% on the rest. Scotland and Wales use the same slicing method with their own thresholds, which is why the arithmetic is easy and the inputs are where the mistakes are.

Shares are a separate tax with a separate form

A share transfer is not a land transaction and the land tables do not touch it. GOV.UK puts the charge at 0.5% of what you pay for the shares, collected as Stamp Duty Reserve Tax where the purchase is electronic and as Stamp Duty where it is done on a stock transfer form, and only where that transaction is over £1,000.

For a company director moving shares between shareholders this is usually the only transfer tax in the deal, and it is charged on the consideration given rather than on the value of the company. The mechanics of the form matter more than the rate does.

Common questions

Is stamp duty the same across the United Kingdom?

No. England and Northern Ireland charge Stamp Duty Land Tax, Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax. They are separate taxes with separate thresholds, separate surcharges and separate deadlines, and only the everyday name is shared.

Does a company pay a different rate from an individual?

On the main tables the rate follows the land and the price rather than the buyer, but the surcharges do look at the buyer. A purchase that gives the buyer an additional dwelling carries a supplement in every one of the three regimes, and a company buying residential property is usually in that position from the first purchase.

Does this site work out my liability for me?

No. It sets out the published rules and the published bands with the source for each one, so you can see how a figure is arrived at. It does not advise on a particular transaction, does not decide which relief applies to you and does not file a return.

How is this site paid?

It is paid as an introducer when a reader asks to be put in touch with an adviser or a conveyancer who does the work. It is not paid by any firm for a placement, it recommends no firm, and nothing on these pages is written to steer an enquiry towards one.

Coverage by relief

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