All three UK regimes, band by band, with the 5-point additional dwellings surcharge, the 2-point non-resident surcharge, first-time buyer relief and the 17% corporate single rate applied properly rather than approximately.
The chargeable consideration — normally the price you are paying for the property.
Three different taxes, with different bands and different reliefs.
The surcharge applies to additional dwellings costing £40,000 or more, including a buy-to-let bought while you own your own home.
Relief exists in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Wales has none, and it never applies alongside the additional dwelling rates.
For SDLT, the test is whether you were present in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase.
A company pays the higher rates on any residential purchase of £40,000 or more, and a single rate of 17% over £500,000 unless a relief applies.
Only relevant to a company buying above £500,000 in England or Northern Ireland. The relief takes the purchase back onto the higher rates, and it is subject to clawback.
Illustrative figures on 2026/27 rates and simplified assumptions. This is information, not advice, and it is no substitute for a proper calculation on your own numbers. Ask us to work through your own figures.
We will send the band-by-band breakdown exactly as it appears on the right, so you have it when you budget the completion figure. We use your address for that and for the monthly landlord tax email, nothing else, and you can unsubscribe from the first one you get.
All three UK regimes are slice taxes: each rate applies only to the part of the price that falls in its own band, so crossing a threshold never makes the whole purchase more expensive. The band-by-band lines show where the money actually goes, which matters when you are negotiating a price near a threshold, and the effective rate at the bottom is the total as a percentage of the whole price.
They are three different taxes, not one tax with regional variations. Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in England and Northern Ireland, Land Transaction Tax in Wales, and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland. The bands are different, the reliefs are different, and two of the SDLT surcharges do not exist elsewhere. Choosing the wrong nation is a four-figure error on an ordinary buy-to-let.
In England and Northern Ireland the additional dwellings surcharge is 5 percentage points, not 3. It rose on 31 October 2024, and it applies where the additional property costs £40,000 or more. On a £300,000 purchase that is £6,000 between the right answer and the one a lot of online calculators still give. The higher rates run 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 17% across the bands, against the standard 0%, 2%, 5%, 10% and 12% in force since 1 April 2025.
Two things sit on top of that. The non-UK resident surcharge is 2 percentage points and stacks on top of all other residential rates, including the higher rates; the test is whether you were present in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase. And first-time buyers' relief stops dead above £500,000 — nil to £300,000 and 5% from £300,001 to £500,000, then no relief at all, not a taper. The £425,000 and £625,000 figures were temporary and ended on 31 March 2025.
If you are replacing your only or main residence the surcharge may not apply at all, or may be refunded if you sell the old home within three years. The conditions are in Schedule 4ZA of the Finance Act 2003 and they are precise, down to who held a major interest immediately after the disposal. For sales on or after 29 October 2018 the refund claim window runs to 12 months from the later of the sale and the filing date of the return.
The higher rates apply to any residential purchase by a company of £40,000 or more, whether or not the company owns anything else. Above that sits the single rate for companies and other non-natural persons: 17% on the whole price for a single dwelling costing more than £500,000, in force since 31 October 2024. Anything quoting 15% is out of date, and on a £600,000 purchase the difference between the two is £12,000. Partnerships with a corporate partner and collective investment schemes are caught by the same rate.
Most genuine buy-to-let companies escape the single rate through property rental business relief, which takes the purchase back onto the ordinary higher rates — that is what the relief question in the calculator models. Other reliefs cover property developers and traders, property made available to the public in a trade, financial institutions acquiring in the course of lending, occupation by employees, farmhouses and qualifying housing co-operatives. All of them are subject to clawback, so the relief has to stay true after completion. The property companies page covers what else changes once a property sits in a company, and the incorporation calculator puts this cost next to the annual saving.
Wales runs two separate tables rather than a surcharge. The main residential rates, in force since 10 October 2022, start at 0% to £225,000 and reach 12% above £1.5m. The higher residential rates, in force since 11 December 2024, start at 5% from the first pound and reach 17% above £1.5m. There is no first-time buyer relief in Wales at all, and the non-resident surcharge and the corporate single rate are Stamp Duty Land Tax rules that do not apply there.
Scotland charges LBTT on bands unchanged since 1 April 2021, with first-time buyer relief raising the nil rate band from £145,000 to £175,000, worth up to £600. On top of that the Additional Dwelling Supplement is 8% for transactions on or after 5 December 2024, charged on the whole consideration where it is £40,000 or more rather than added to the bands — a very different shape of cost from the English surcharge, and much heavier at the bottom of the market. Where you are replacing a main residence, the replacement window is 36 months for transactions from 1 April 2024, up from 18 months.
It prices a single freehold residential dwelling bought by one buyer. Leases with a rental element, linked transactions, mixed use property and transactions involving several dwellings at once are all charged differently, and none of them are modelled here. Nor is the position where a purchase falls within transitional rules from a contract exchanged before a rate change. This is information, not advice, and not a recommendation about whether to buy anything. Your conveyancer files the return and pays the tax on completion, and their figure is the one that counts.
Two other numbers belong in the same decision. What the property will cost you in tax each year is on the Section 24 calculator, and what it will cost when you eventually sell is on the capital gains calculator. If you want the whole purchase modelled properly — including whether it should be bought personally or in a company — a free review will do it before you exchange rather than after.
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