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Stamp duty calculator for the whole UK
Three nations, three taxes, one form: enter the price and your situation, and see the bill band by band.
Official bands of HMRC, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority, checked on · How we calculate · About this site
More options: commercial property, company relief
Stamp Duty Land Tax · England and Northern Ireland
£5,000
1.7% of £300,000 · rule applied: Standard residential rates
| Portion | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | 0% | £0 |
| £125,000 to £250,000 | 2% | £2,500 |
| £250,000 to £925,000 | 5% | £2,500 |
Return and payment due within 14 days of completion.
Same purchase elsewhere in the UK
Buying a home in the United Kingdom means paying one of three different taxes. In England and Northern Ireland it is Stamp Duty Land Tax, collected by HMRC: a £300,000 home costs £5,000, or nothing for a first-time buyer. In Scotland it is Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, collected by Revenue Scotland, with an Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% of the whole price on a second home: the same £300,000 costs £4,600, or £28,600 for a landlord. In Wales it is Land Transaction Tax, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority, with no first-time buyer relief and its own higher rates: £4,500, or £19,950 at the higher rates. This calculator applies all three with the rates in force for completions in 2026, including the 2% non-resident surcharge and the 17% company rate that only exist in England and Northern Ireland, and tells you how much of a surcharge comes back if your old home sells later.
The three taxes side by side
Most calculators online were built for England and bolt Scotland and Wales on afterwards, if at all. The rules differ more than the names suggest, and the differences are largest exactly where buyers are most exposed: second homes, first purchases, buyers who live abroad, companies.
| England & NI (SDLT) | Scotland (LBTT) | Wales (LTT) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collected by | HMRC | Revenue Scotland | Welsh Revenue Authority |
| Nil band, one home | £125,000 | £145,000 | £225,000 |
| Top rate | 12% above £1,500,000 | 12% above £750,000 | 12% above £1,500,000 |
| First-time buyers | nil to £300,000, lost above £500,000 | nil band raised to £175,000 | no relief |
| Second home or buy-to-let | +5% on every band | ADS: 8% of the whole price | separate higher table, from 5% |
| Non-UK resident buyer | +2% on every band | no surcharge | no surcharge |
| Company buying a home | 17% of the price above £500,000, or higher rates | ADS on every dwelling | higher rates |
| Old home sold later: surcharge back if sold within | 3 years | 36 months | 3 years |
| Return and payment due | 14 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Find your situation
Each page below has its own calculator and the traps that go with the situation.
- First-time buyer: at £350,000, £2,500 in England, £7,750 in Scotland, £7,500 in Wales.
- Moving home, one home at the end: at £450,000, £12,500 in England, £18,350 in Scotland, £14,250 in Wales.
- Second home or buy-to-let: at £250,000, £15,000 in England, £22,100 in Scotland, £14,950 in Wales.
- Buying before selling the old home: at £400,000, £30,000 in England, £45,350 in Scotland, £29,950 in Wales.
- Buyer living abroad: at £500,000, £25,000 in England instead of £15,000; Scotland and Wales charge no surcharge.
- Limited company: at £600,000, £102,000 in England at the flat rate, £50,000 if the company lets the home.
- Buying with a partner, friend or parent, shared ownership, transfer of equity and inherited property each have their own page.
Tax on the average home, city by city
Averages from the UK House Price Index for July 2026, published by HM Land Registry. The first-time buyer column applies the relief of each nation to the average price first-time buyers actually paid; Northern Ireland does not publish that split.
| City | Average price | Tax | One home | Average first-time buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | £550,037 | SDLT | £17,501 | £8,342 |
| Manchester | £252,309 | SDLT | £2,615 | £0 |
| Birmingham | £234,257 | SDLT | £2,185 | £0 |
| Leeds | £247,695 | SDLT | £2,453 | £0 |
| Bristol | £352,262 | SDLT | £7,613 | £666 |
| Liverpool | £189,036 | SDLT | £1,280 | £0 |
| Sheffield | £219,713 | SDLT | £1,894 | £0 |
| Newcastle | £207,547 | SDLT | £1,650 | £0 |
| Brighton | £408,948 | SDLT | £10,447 | £2,196 |
| Oxford | £471,667 | SDLT | £13,583 | £5,213 |
| Belfast | £184,768 | SDLT | £1,195 | n/a |
| Edinburgh | £303,965 | LBTT | £4,798 | £1,727 |
| Glasgow | £193,675 | LBTT | £973 | £0 |
| Aberdeen | £130,689 | LBTT | £0 | £0 |
| Cardiff | £272,252 | LTT | £2,835 | £549 |
| Swansea | £205,383 | LTT | £0 | £0 |
The table of every local authority does the same for all 360 councils and districts.
How a slice tax works
None of the three taxes charges one rate on the whole price. Each rate applies only to the portion of the price inside its band, and the portions are added, so crossing a threshold never makes the whole bill jump. On a £450,000 home in England, the first £125,000 is free, the next £125,000 pays 2% and the remaining £200,000 pays 5%, for £12,500. The only real cliffs in the system are created by reliefs and surcharges: English first-time buyer relief disappears entirely above £500,000, and the 17% company rate applies to the whole price once it passes £500,000.
| Band | Amount in band | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | £125,000 | 0% | £0 |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | £125,000 | 2% | £2,500 |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | £200,000 | 5% | £10,000 |
| Total | £450,000 | 2.8% | £12,500 |
The step-by-step guide works through the same price in Scotland and Wales, where the bands fall in different places.
Why the nation changes everything
Scotland replaced SDLT with LBTT on 1 April 2015 and Wales replaced it with LTT on 1 April 2018. Since then each government has set its own bands, and they rarely move together. The result is that the same buyer can face very different bills a few miles apart.
For a family buying a modest home, Wales is often the cheapest of the three because its nil band runs to £225,000: on £250,000, Wales charges £1,500, Scotland £2,100 and England £2,500. Higher up, Scotland becomes the most expensive: its 10% band starts at £325,000 and its 12% band at £750,000, so a £800,000 house costs £54,350 there against £30,000 in England and £41,750 in Wales.
For second homes the order changes again. The Scottish supplement is a flat 8% of the whole price, so even a cheap flat pays it from the first pound: a £150,000 flat to let costs £12,100 in Scotland, £8,000 in England and £7,500 in Wales. First-time buyers are best off in England below £300,000, where they pay nothing, and they gain the least in Wales, which has no relief at all. The full comparison sets out where each nation wins.
Surcharges that come back
Buyers who complete on a new home before their old one has sold pay the surcharge, because at the end of completion day they own two homes. All three nations give it back if the old main home is sold in time: within 3 years in England and Northern Ireland, 36 months in Scotland and 3 years in Wales. On a £400,000 purchase, that is £20,000 in England, £32,000 in Scotland and £19,450 in Wales. The claim is not automatic and each authority has its own deadline; the refund calculator gives yours.
Rates in force for 2026
England and Northern Ireland apply the bands in force since 1 April 2025, when the temporary thresholds of September 2022 ended. Scotland’s residential bands have not changed since 1 April 2021, and its supplement rose to 8% on 5 December 2024. Wales has used its main bands since 10 October 2022 and raised its higher rates on 11 December 2024.
England and Northern Ireland, SDLT bands
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | 5% |
| £925,001 to £1,500,000 | 10% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 12% |
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £300,000 | 0% |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | 5% |
Scotland, LBTT bands
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £145,000 | 0% |
| £145,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £325,000 | 5% |
| £325,001 to £750,000 | 10% |
| Above £750,000 | 12% |
First-time buyer relief raises the nil band to £175,000; the ADS adds 8% of the whole price on additional dwellings.
Wales, LTT main and higher bands
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £225,000 | 0% |
| £225,001 to £400,000 | 6% |
| £400,001 to £750,000 | 7.5% |
| £750,001 to £1,500,000 | 10% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 12% |
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £180,000 | 5% |
| £180,001 to £250,000 | 8.5% |
| £250,001 to £400,000 | 10% |
| £400,001 to £750,000 | 12.5% |
| £750,001 to £1,500,000 | 15% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 17% |
Before you make an offer
- Check which nation the land is in, and whether anyone on the title owns, part-owns or has inherited a home anywhere in the world.
- Look at the thresholds around your price: £300,000 and £500,000 for English first-time buyers, £325,000 in Scotland, £225,000 and £400,000 in Wales.
- If you are buying before selling, budget for the surcharge and diarise the refund deadline the day you complete.
- If you live abroad, count your days in the UK over the past year: 183 days or more and the English surcharge does not apply.
- Ask your conveyancer for the figure they will put on the return, and compare it with this calculator using the share link.
Every rate on this site is read on the official pages of HMRC, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority, tested against their worked examples and dated. The method page lists the tests and what the calculator does not model; the about page says who builds it and why.
Questions buyers ask
Which stamp duty applies if the house is right on the border between England and Wales?
The tax follows the land, not your address or your postcode’s post town. Where a property straddles the border, the price is split on a just and reasonable basis and each part pays its own tax: SDLT for the English land, LTT for the Welsh land. The Welsh Revenue Authority publishes a postcode checker for this, and your conveyancer files two returns.
Is stamp duty paid on completion or when contracts are exchanged?
On completion, which is the “effective date” in all three nations. The return and the payment are due within 14 days of completion in England and Northern Ireland and within 30 days in Scotland and Wales. In practice your conveyancer asks you for the money before completion and pays it the same day.
Can stamp duty be added to my mortgage?
Not directly: the tax is due within days of completion and lenders do not pay it to HMRC for you. Some buyers borrow a larger amount and use part of their savings for the tax instead of the deposit, which raises the loan-to-value and can change the interest rate offered. A mortgage adviser can tell you whether that makes sense.
Do I pay stamp duty on a property under £40,000?
Not at standard rates, because every nation’s nil band is higher than that. The £40,000 figure matters for surcharges: the SDLT higher rates, the Scottish ADS and the Welsh higher rates do not apply to a purchase under it, and a freehold bought for less than £40,000 usually needs no return at all.
I already own a flat abroad. Is buying my first UK home an additional property?
Yes, in all three nations. Homes owned anywhere in the world count when deciding whether you will own more than one dwelling at the end of completion day. Unless you are replacing that flat as your main residence, you pay the SDLT higher rates, the ADS in Scotland or the Welsh higher rates, and you are not a first-time buyer.
How often do stamp duty rates change?
Whenever a Budget says so, and each nation decides alone. England’s nil bands fell on 1 April 2025 when temporary thresholds ended, Scotland raised the ADS to 8% on 5 December 2024 and Wales raised its higher rates on 11 December 2024. We re-read every rate after each UK, Scottish and Welsh Budget and date the check on each page.
Official sources for this page
- GOV.UK, Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates (rates from 1 April 2025)
- HMRC, Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (updated 1 April 2025)
- HMRC, Stamp Duty Land Tax: corporate bodies (17% rate)
- HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual, SDLTM09850A: non-resident surcharge
- Revenue Scotland, LBTT residential property rates and bands
- Revenue Scotland, The Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS)
- Revenue Scotland, LBTT3048: first-time buyer relief
- Welsh Revenue Authority, Land Transaction Tax rates and bands
- Welsh Revenue Authority, Higher rates of Land Transaction Tax: overview (updated 27 August 2025)
- Welsh Revenue Authority, Land Transaction Tax: overview (no first-time buyer relief, 30-day return)
- HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index (July 2026 data)
Written by Radif Partners
Publisher of UK property purchase tax calculators · SDLT, LBTT, LTT
Rates checked on · Editorial policy · Contact
Estimates only: the figures on this page apply the published bands to the facts entered and do not replace advice from your conveyancer or the decision of HMRC, Revenue Scotland or the Welsh Revenue Authority.
Bands and surcharges for 2026, read on the official pages on