England & NI
The non-resident stamp duty surcharge
A day count, not a passport, decides whether an overseas buyer pays more SDLT.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Since 1 April 2021, buyers of residential property in England and Northern Ireland who are not UK resident pay an extra 2% on every band of Stamp Duty Land Tax. The test is simple: anyone who spent fewer than 183 days in the UK during the year before completion is non-resident for this purpose, whatever their nationality. The surcharge sits on top of every other scale, so a £600,000 home bought as a sole residence costs £32,000 instead of £20,000, a second home £62,000, and even a first-time buyer pays £8,000 more on a £400,000 flat. One non-resident buyer is enough to surcharge a joint purchase, unless that buyer is the spouse or civil partner of a UK resident they live with. The money comes back if every buyer then spends 183 days in the UK within a continuous year around completion, by amending the return within 2 years. Commercial property is outside the charge, and Scotland and Wales have no equivalent.
Non-resident surcharge on your purchase
Non-resident surcharge
£12,000
| SDLT as a non-UK resident | £32,000 |
| SDLT as a UK resident | £20,000 |
| Reclaimable if you reach the residence test later | £12,000 |
Standard residential rates + 2% non-resident surcharge
2% on every band, on top of everything else
Schedule 9A of the Finance Act 2003 does not create a new scale. It takes whichever residential scale would apply to the purchase and adds 2% to each of its bands, the nil band included. The first-time buyer scale becomes 2% and 7%. The higher rates for additional dwellings start at 7%. The 17% company rate becomes 19% of the whole price.
| Band | Amount in band | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 to £125,000 | £125,000 | 2% | £2,500 |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | £125,000 | 4% | £5,000 |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | £350,000 | 7% | £24,500.00 |
| Total | £600,000 | 5.3% | £32,000 |
Because the extra 2% applies from the first pound, the surcharge is simply 2% of the price for most purchases: £12,000 here. Compare it with the higher rates, which add 5% to each band; a non-resident landlord buying a flat to let pays both.
| Price | Buyer | UK resident | Non-resident | Surcharge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £300,000 | First-time buyer | £0 | £6,000 | £6,000 |
| £300,000 | Sole home or moving home | £5,000 | £11,000 | £6,000 |
| £300,000 | Additional property | £20,000 | £26,000 | £6,000 |
| £300,000 | Company, no relief | £20,000 | £26,000 | £6,000 |
| £500,000 | First-time buyer | £10,000 | £20,000 | £10,000 |
| £500,000 | Sole home or moving home | £15,000 | £25,000 | £10,000 |
| £500,000 | Additional property | £40,000 | £50,000 | £10,000 |
| £500,000 | Company, no relief | £40,000 | £50,000 | £10,000 |
| £900,000 | First-time buyer | £35,000 | £53,000 | £18,000 |
| £900,000 | Sole home or moving home | £35,000 | £53,000 | £18,000 |
| £900,000 | Additional property | £80,000 | £98,000 | £18,000 |
| £900,000 | Company, no relief | £153,000 | £171,000 | £18,000 |
| £2,000,000 | First-time buyer | £153,750 | £193,750 | £40,000 |
| £2,000,000 | Sole home or moving home | £153,750 | £193,750 | £40,000 |
| £2,000,000 | Additional property | £253,750 | £293,750 | £40,000 |
| £2,000,000 | Company, no relief | £340,000 | £380,000 | £40,000 |
The 183-day test
An individual is non-resident for the surcharge if they were present in the UK on fewer than 183 days during the year ending with the day of completion. It is a plain count of days, with no other factor weighed against it. Someone who has lived in Singapore for a decade but spent the last seven months back in Bristol already passes it; someone who left Leeds for Toronto ten months ago may already fail it.
The count looks backwards from completion, not from exchange. A long gap between the two can help a returning buyer, because every day spent in the UK before completion adds to the tally. Keep travel records that show your arrival and departure dates: HMRC can open a check after the return has been filed.
Joint buyers
The surcharge applies to the whole price as soon as one buyer is non-resident. Two siblings buying a flat in Manchester, one living there and one in Melbourne, pay the surcharge on the full purchase, not on the Australian sibling’s half. The joint purchase calculator applies this rule buyer by buyer.
Spouses and civil partners of UK residents
There is one exception. A married person or civil partner who lives with a UK-resident spouse is treated as UK resident for the surcharge (SDLTM09885). A couple where one partner commutes to a job in Zurich and the other lives in Oxford therefore pays UK rates. The relief is tied to marriage or civil partnership: cohabiting partners do not benefit from it.
Getting the surcharge back
A buyer who paid the surcharge can recover it by becoming UK resident in relation to the purchase. That means spending at least 183 days in the UK during a continuous period of a year that starts no earlier than a year before completion and ends no later than a year after it. Where several people bought, every one of them must meet the test, each in their own continuous year; only then is the refund available.
The claim is made by amending the original SDLT return, not by a separate form, and the amendment must reach HMRC within 2 years starting with the day after completion (SDLTM09960). In practice that leaves about a year after the residence window closes. On the £600,000 example the refund is £12,000, which is worth a diary note on the day you arrive.
Three overseas buyers, three outcomes
A family relocating from Hong Kong. They arrive in Surrey three months before completing on a £750,000 house, their only home anywhere. At completion they are non-resident and pay £42,500 instead of £27,500. Both spouses stay, both pass 183 days within the year after completion, and the amended return brings back £15,000.
A landlord based in Dubai. He keeps his apartment there and buys a £250,000 flat in Liverpool to let. The purchase carries the higher rates and the non-resident surcharge together, £20,000 in all, of which £5,000 is the residence part. Unless he moves to the UK, none of it comes back.
A nurse recruited from abroad. She has never owned a home anywhere and buys a £280,000 flat two months after starting work in Birmingham. First-time buyer relief still applies, so the only tax is the surcharge: £5,600. By the end of her first year in the UK she has passed the day count, and the whole amount is refundable.
Paying first, reclaiming later
The surcharge cannot be left off the return in the hope of passing the day count later. The position on completion day decides what is due, and the return and payment must reach HMRC within 14 days of completion like any other SDLT return. A buyer expecting to settle in the UK should budget for the full amount and treat the refund as money returned within a year or two. Where the first-time buyer scale is involved, the surcharge also follows the relief over its cliff: at £500,000 a non-resident first-time buyer pays £20,000, and £25,000 a pound above it.
What the surcharge does not touch
- Non-residential and mixed-use property. Shops, offices and mixed-use buildings follow the commercial scale for everyone (commercial property stamp duty).
- Scotland and Wales. LBTT and LTT have no residence test at all. An overseas buyer of a house in Glasgow pays the same LBTT as a local buyer, and the same applies in Swansea under LTT.
- The rest of the bill. The surcharge never cancels a relief. A first-time buyer living abroad keeps the relief scale and pays 2% on top, provided every buyer meets the first-time buyer conditions.
Overseas buyers comparing locations should look at the full bill rather than the surcharge alone. At £600,000, a non-resident pays £32,000 in England, £33,350 in Scotland and £25,500 in Wales for a sole home. The comparison of the three nations runs the same exercise for second homes and first purchases.