Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a tax paid when you buy property or land over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Wales has Land Transaction Tax (LTT) — the rates and thresholds differ.
Stamp duty is paid to HMRC within 14 days of completing your property purchase. Your solicitor or conveyancer usually handles this.
Stamp duty is charged on the portion of the purchase price within each band — similar to how income tax works. You don't pay the higher rate on the entire purchase price, only on the slice above each threshold.
Standard residential rates (from April 2025):
Note: The temporary thresholds introduced in 2022 (zero rate up to £250,000) ended in March 2025. The rates above reflect the current position.
First-time buyers get a discount:
To qualify, every buyer named on the purchase must be a first-time buyer. If you're buying jointly with someone who has owned property before, you don't qualify for first-time buyer relief.
If you're buying an additional residential property (including buy-to-let), you pay an extra 3% surcharge on top of the standard rates. This applies on the entire purchase price from pound one.
Example: £250,000 buy-to-let → standard duty would be £2,500, but with the surcharge it's £10,000 (the 3% applies to the full £250,000 as well as the standard rates on each band).
Example for a standard purchase at £350,000:
Within 14 days of completing your property purchase. Your solicitor usually handles this automatically as part of the conveyancing process.
Some lenders will include stamp duty in the mortgage amount, but this increases your loan size and means paying interest on the stamp duty for the life of the mortgage. It's generally better to pay stamp duty from savings if possible.
You can choose to pay stamp duty on the full market value of the property (staircasing method) or just on the share you're buying. The latter delays the remaining duty until you buy additional shares or sell.
No. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Wales has Land Transaction Tax (LTT), each with their own rates and thresholds. Our calculator covers England and Northern Ireland (SDLT) only.