Deedsum › Stamp duty
Property tax
What stamp duty actually costs
The bands for England, Scotland and Wales, with a calculator that runs in your browser and collects nothing.
Three countries, three different taxes on buying a home. The tax is charged in slices, so a house is never taxed at one flat rate on the whole price, and each nation sets its own bands. Put a price in and the estimate is worked out in your browser, from the published bands below.
An estimate from the published bands, worked out in your browser. Nothing you type leaves your device. It does not include the non-resident surcharge. Check the exact figure on gov.uk before you rely on it.
England and Northern Ireland: Stamp Duty Land Tax
Stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland is charged in slices, not all at one rate. You pay nothing on the first £125,000 of the price, then 2% on the slice up to £250,000, and so on up. So a £300,000 house is not taxed at 5%. Anyone who tells you the whole price is taxed at your top rate is either guessing or selling you something.
| Price band | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% |
| The next £125,000 (the portion from £125,001 to £250,000) | 2% |
| The next £675,000 (the portion from £250,001 to £925,000) | 5% |
| The next £575,000 (the portion from £925,001 to £1.5 million) | 10% |
| The remaining amount (the portion above £1.5 million) | 12% |
First-time buyer relief
No SDLT up to £300,000, then 5% from £300,001 to £500,000, and no relief at all above £500,000. If this is the first home for everyone buying it, you pay nothing up to £300,000 and 5% on the slice between £300,001 and £500,000. Above £500,000 the relief does not shrink, it disappears, and you are back on the ordinary rates from the first pound over. If one of you has owned a home before, nobody gets the relief.
Buying an additional property
5% on top of the normal rates. Buy a second property and 5% is added to every band, not just the top one. It catches people who are not investors: if your old home has not completed on the day your new one does, you own two, you pay the surcharge, and you claim it back afterwards. Budget for it even when you expect a refund.
Not a UK resident
2% on top, if you were in the UK for fewer than 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase. This one is a day count, not a passport. Fewer than 183 days in the UK in the year before you buy and 2% goes on top of every band. It stacks with the second-property surcharge if both apply to you.
Scotland: Land and Buildings Transaction Tax
Scotland does not have stamp duty. It has LBTT, set at Holyrood, and the bands are different: nothing up to £145,000, then 2% and upward in slices. A calculator built for England will give a Scottish buyer the wrong number, which is why the ones that do not ask where the house is should be closed.
| Price band | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £145,000 | 0% |
| £145,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £325,000 | 5% |
| £325,001 to £750,000 | 10% |
| Over £750,000 | 12% |
First-time buyer relief
Nil-rate band raised to £175,000, worth up to £600. Scotland's first-time buyer relief lifts the nil-rate band to £175,000, which Revenue Scotland says is worth up to £600. That is real money and it is also a good deal less than the English relief. Two different taxes, two different reliefs, and no reason to expect them to match.
The Additional Dwelling Supplement
8% of the whole purchase price. Scotland's second-home charge works differently from England's. It is 8% of the entire purchase price, flat, not extra percentage points on each slice. On a £250,000 second home that is £20,000 on top of the LBTT. Check which country you are buying in before you trust any second-property calculator.
Wales: Land Transaction Tax
Wales has its own tax again, with the highest starting threshold of the three: nothing up to £225,000. Above that the first rate is 6%, higher than England's 2%, so Wales is kinder at the bottom and steeper in the middle. Three countries, three sets of bands, and no calculator should give you a number without asking which one you are in.
| Price band | Rate |
|---|---|
| The portion up to and including £225,000 | 0% |
| The portion over £225,000 up to and including £400,000 | 6% |
| The portion over £400,000 up to and including £750,000 | 7.5% |
| The portion over £750,000 up to and including £1,500,000 | 10% |
| The portion over £1,500,000 | 12% |
Buying an additional property
Wales does not add a surcharge to the main table. It moves an additional-property buyer to a separate, higher table from the first pound: 5% from the first pound, rising to 17% on the portion above £1.5m. Wales handles second homes with a whole separate table rather than a surcharge, and it starts at 5% from the first pound. So the three countries do this three different ways: England adds points to each band, Scotland charges a flat 8% of the lot, Wales moves you to another table. Anyone comparing them in one sentence is oversimplifying.
| Price band | Rate |
|---|---|
| The portion up to and including £180,000 | 5% |
| The portion over £180,000 up to and including £250,000 | 8.5% |
| The portion over £250,000 up to and including £400,000 | 10% |
| The portion over £400,000 up to and including £750,000 | 12.5% |
| The portion over £750,000 up to and including £1,500,000 | 15% |
| The portion over £1,500,000 | 17% |
First-time buyer relief
There is no first-time buyer relief in Wales. Wales has no first-time buyer relief. It does not need one in the same way, because its starting threshold is the highest of the three at £225,000, so a first home under that pays nothing anyway. If a national guide tells you to claim first-time buyer relief on a Welsh purchase, it was written for England and nobody checked.
The tax is one part of the bill
Stamp duty is usually the biggest single number, but it is not the whole cost. The legal fee, the searches and the Land Registry fee sit alongside it. The full breakdown is on the conveyancing fees page.
Questions people ask
Do I pay stamp duty in Scotland or Wales?
No. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax instead, each with its own bands set by its own government. A stamp duty calculator built for England will give the wrong figure in either.
Is the whole price taxed at one rate?
No. The tax is charged in slices, so each portion of the price is taxed at the rate for its band. Anyone who taxes the whole price at your top rate is overstating it.
Does this calculator collect my details?
No. It runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing. It is an estimate from the published bands; check the exact figure on gov.uk before you rely on it.