Scotland
Reclaiming the Additional Dwelling Supplement
Buying before selling is allowed in Scotland. It just means lending Revenue Scotland 8% of the price until the old home sells.
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If you bought a new main home in Scotland before selling the old one, you paid the Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% of the price, and you can claim it back once the former main residence is sold within 36 months of the new purchase. On a £300,000 home that is £24,000. Conditions: the home sold must have been your only or main residence at some point in the 36 months before the purchase, the new home must be occupied as your main residence. For purchases from 1 April 2024, only one of several joint buyers needs to have sold, but all must live in the new home. Revenue Scotland accepts no exceptions for a sale that misses the deadline. The claim is made by amending the LBTT return within 12 months of the filing date, or after that by an overpayment claim within 5 years of the date the return was due. The authority aims to repay within 10 working days, with interest.
Your ADS repayment
ADS you can reclaim
£25,600
| ADS paid at entry | £25,600 |
| Sale inside the window | Yes (36 months) |
| Usual route | Amend the LBTT return |
Amendment within 12 months of the filing date; after that, a claim within 5 years of the date the return was due.
Why movers pay a supplement meant for second homes
The supplement is decided at the end of the day of entry. A buyer who takes entry to a new home while the old one is still theirs owns two dwellings that evening, and the LBTT return has to include the 8% charge. Bridging finance, a chain that broke, a new-build that completed early: the reason does not matter. What matters is whether the old home was a main residence, and the law then lets the buyer recover the supplement once it is sold.
| Price of the new home | Paid at entry | Plain LBTT | Repayment after the sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| £180,000 | £15,100 | £700 | £14,400 |
| £250,000 | £22,100 | £2,100 | £20,000 |
| £320,000 | £31,200 | £5,600 | £25,600 |
| £400,000 | £45,350 | £13,350 | £32,000 |
| £550,000 | £72,350 | £28,350 | £44,000 |
| £800,000 | £118,350 | £54,350 | £64,000 |
The repayment is the supplement alone. The LBTT on the bands stays due, since it is the tax any buyer of a single home pays.
The three conditions
- The former home was a main residence. It must have been the buyer’s only or main residence at some time during the 36 months before the effective date of the new purchase. A flat you let out for five years and sell now does not qualify, even if you once lived there long ago.
- The new home becomes the main residence. The buyer must intend to live there, and must actually do so. A buyer who keeps living in the old home while letting the new one has bought an additional dwelling, not a replacement.
- The sale happens within 36 months. The disposal of the former home must take place within 36 months after the effective date of the new purchase.
Joint buyers since 1 April 2024
For purchases with an effective date from 1 April 2024, the rules were relaxed for couples and other joint buyers. Only one of them needs to have sold a former main residence, but every buyer must occupy the new home as their main residence. A couple where one partner sells a flat in Stirling and the other has never owned anything can therefore recover the supplement, provided they live together in the new house. Purchases with an earlier effective date stay under the rules in force at the time, and a solicitor should check those cases individually.
No exceptional circumstances
England’s rules make room for exceptional circumstances, such as a sale prevented by a public authority. Scotland’s do not. The point was tested in MacQuarrie v Revenue Scotland, and the outcome confirmed that the 36-month limit is set by the legislation and cannot be stretched for exceptional circumstances. A sale completed a day late gives nothing back.
Two practical consequences follow. First, a buyer who starts the clock with an unsold home should treat the deadline as the real cost of the purchase: on a £350,000 house, the difference between selling in time and selling late is £28,000. Second, the date that counts is the date of entry on the sale, not the date missives are concluded. Building a margin into the timetable is the only protection.
Two routes to make the claim
The route depends on how much time has passed since the LBTT return for the new home was filed.
- Within 12 months of the filing date, the buyer, usually through the solicitor, amends the original return to remove the supplement. This is the simplest route and the natural one for a sale in the first year.
- After that, the return can no longer be amended and the buyer makes a claim for repayment of overpaid tax, within 5 years of the date the original return was due.
Because the window to sell is 36 months, a buyer who sells in year two or three will always use the second route. Nothing is lost by it, but the claim must be made: Revenue Scotland does not repay the supplement automatically when the Registers of Scotland record the sale.
Putting the deadlines on a calendar
Take a family who get entry to a house in Bearsden on 15 June 2026, while their flat in the West End of Glasgow is still on the market. Their solicitor files the LBTT return with the supplement within 30 days, by 15 July 2026 at the latest. From then on, three dates frame the repayment:
- the flat must be sold, with entry given to its buyer, by 15 June 2029;
- a sale within 12 months of the filing date can be handled by amending the return;
- any later sale goes through an overpayment claim, which has 5 years from the date the return was due.
The family should not wait for the end of the claim period once the flat has sold. Interest runs in their favour, but a claim made in the weeks after the sale, with the sale documents fresh, is the one least likely to be queried.
What to have ready
The claim identifies the purchase (the LBTT return reference), the former main residence (its address) and the sale (the date of entry and the price). Keep evidence that the old home was your main residence within the 36 months before the purchase, such as council tax bills, and that you now live in the new one. Joint buyers should be ready to show that each of them occupies the new home. Revenue Scotland aims to make the repayment within 10 working days of a complete claim, and pays interest on the amount for the time it held it.
The rules in Wales and in England work on the same idea with different clocks, 3 years in both, and a different calculation in Wales, where the higher rates refund is the gap between two tables. For a purchase in Scotland, the LBTT calculator shows the repayable amount on the result line.