UK Stamp Duty Calculator
Work out Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on an England or Northern Ireland property purchase — standard rates, first-time buyer relief, the additional-property surcharge and the non-resident surcharge, with a full band-by-band breakdown.
- SDLT is charged in slices, not on the whole price: a £500,000 standard purchase costs £15,000 — 0% on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000, 5% on the rest.
- First-time buyers pay nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% up to £500,000 — but above £500,000 the relief vanishes entirely.
- An additional property adds 5 points to every band; a non-UK resident buyer adds 2 more. Both can apply together.
Calculate your stamp duty
Enter the purchase price and your buyer type.
First-time buyer relief only applies if every buyer qualifies and the price is £500,000 or less.
Advanced options — surcharges & property type
The 2% non-resident surcharge applies to residential purchases and stacks with the additional-property surcharge.
Non-residential rates: 0% to £150,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% above. No buyer-type surcharges apply to non-residential property.
The main result already uses the standard residential bands (from 1 April 2025) with their defaults — open Advanced options only for the non-resident surcharge or non-residential property.
Key takeaways
- SDLT is sliced, not flat. A £500,000 standard purchase costs £15,000: £0 + £2,500 + £12,500 across the three bands it touches.
- First-time buyer relief: 0% to £300,000, 5% to £500,000 — then nothing. At £500,001 the whole purchase pays standard rates, so the bill jumps, not creeps.
- Additional properties add 5 points to every band (5/7/10/15/17%); non-UK residents add 2 more — together, up to 19% on the top slice.
- Non-residential property is cheaper: 0% to £150,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% above — with no buyer surcharges.
- File and pay within 14 days of completion — usually your solicitor handles it, but the deadline is yours, not theirs.
Contents
- The SDLT bands from 1 April 2025
- Worked examples
- First-time buyer relief — and its cliff
- Additional property and non-resident surcharges
- Scotland and Wales are different taxes
- Deadlines, reliefs and mistakes
- One price, three bills: £500,000 in England, Scotland, and Wales
- Surcharges and cliffs: the additional-property and non-resident rules
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The SDLT bands from 1 April 2025
Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to residential purchases in England and Northern Ireland. The bands below have applied since 1 April 2025, when the temporary higher thresholds expired. Each rate applies only to the slice of the price inside that band:
| Portion of price | Standard | Additional property |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% | 5% |
| £125,001 – £250,000 | 2% | 7% |
| £250,001 – £925,000 | 5% | 10% |
| £925,001 – £1,500,000 | 10% | 15% |
| Above £1,500,000 | 12% | 17% |
The final bill is rounded down to the nearest pound. Non-residential property uses 0% to £150,000, 2% to £250,000 and 5% above — switch the property type in Advanced options to see it.
Worked examples
£500,000, standard buyer: £125,000 at 0% (£0) + £125,000 at 2% (£2,500) + £250,000 at 5% (£12,500) = £15,000 (3.00% effective).
£450,000, first-time buyer: £300,000 at 0% + £150,000 at 5% = £7,500 (1.67% effective) — a £7,500 saving against the standard £15,000 on the same price.
£600,000, home mover: £2,500 + £17,500 = £20,000 (3.33% effective). A first-time buyer at the same price pays the same £20,000, because relief is gone above £500,000.
£2,000,000, standard buyer: £2,500 + £33,750 + £57,500 + £60,000 = £153,750 (7.69% effective).
First-time buyer relief — and its cliff
To qualify, you must never have owned a major interest in a residential property anywhere in the world, and every buyer on the purchase must qualify — one partner who previously owned a share disqualifies the whole purchase. You must also intend to live in the property as your main home.
The cliff is the trap: at £500,000 a first-time buyer pays £10,000; at £500,001 they pay the full standard bill (£15,000 on the first £500,001 of value, plus more above). A £1 over the threshold can cost thousands, so check the exact completion price before exchanging.
Additional property and non-resident surcharges
Buying a second home, holiday home or buy-to-let adds 5 percentage points to every band (from 31 October 2024, up from 3 points). It applies if you already hold a residential interest anywhere in the world at completion — including a flat abroad you may have forgotten about.
Non-UK residents add 2 points per band on residential purchases. The two surcharges stack: an additional property bought by a non-resident pays 7/9/12/17/19% across the bands. Both are included in this calculator’s Advanced options.
Scotland and Wales are different taxes
Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax (LTT) — different bands, different first-time buyer rules, and (unlike England) both still offer their own multiple dwellings relief. This calculator covers England and Northern Ireland SDLT only; do not use it for a Scottish or Welsh purchase.
Deadlines, reliefs and mistakes
- 14 days: the SDLT return must be filed and the tax paid within 14 days of the effective date (usually completion). Late filing draws penalties and interest.
- Multiple dwellings relief is gone in England and NI for transactions completing on or after 1 June 2024 — except where contracts exchanged before 6 March 2024. Buying six or more dwellings in one transaction can still use non-residential rates instead.
- Common mistakes: applying one flat rate to the whole price; using the old £250,000 nil-rate band or the old 3% surcharge; assuming first-time relief survives above £500,000; and forgetting a property owned abroad when testing the additional-property surcharge.
- Reliefs beyond this page: shared ownership, right-to-buy, social housing, and group or charity transactions have their own rules — take conveyancing advice for anything unusual.
How it works
Three steps, no sign-up.
The full purchase price in pounds — the figure on the contract.
Standard, first-time buyer, or additional property — then add surcharges in Advanced options if they apply.
Total SDLT, effective rate, cash needed, and exactly which band each pound fell into.
One price, three bills: £500,000 in England, Scotland, and Wales
The same purchase price produces three different tax bills. The bands, not the price, explain them.
A standard residential purchase at £500,000 — one home, no reliefs, no surcharges — costs £15,000 in SDLT in England and Northern Ireland: £0 on the first £125,000, 2% (£2,500) on the next £125,000, and 5% (£12,500) on the remaining £250,000. The same £500,000 in Scotland under LBTT costs £23,350: £0 to £145,000, 2% (£2,100) to £250,000, 5% (£3,750) to £325,000, and 10% (£17,500) to £500,000. In Wales under LTT it costs £18,000: £0 to £225,000, 6% (£10,500) to £400,000, and 7.5% (£7,500) to £500,000. Scotland’s higher middle bands make it the most expensive of the three at this price, despite its higher nil-rate band, and Wales sits between the two.
The comparison cuts both ways at other prices, which is why a single “UK stamp duty” figure is meaningless without the nation attached. At £300,000 the order reverses: England charges £5,000, Scotland £4,600 and Wales £4,500. The calculator on this page prices England and Northern Ireland SDLT only — its own FAQ says so — so a Scottish or Welsh purchase must be priced on the LBTT and LTT bands, not by reading the SDLT result across. The article linked from this page works the comparison at several prices, with first-time-buyer and second-home variations, so the right band set is used for the right nation every time.
Surcharges and cliffs: the additional-property and non-resident rules
Second homes and non-resident buyers pay more on every band. The relief cliff is a third trap of its own.
For an additional residential property in England and Northern Ireland, every SDLT band rises by 5 percentage points: 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 17% instead of 0%, 2%, 5%, 10% and 12%. A £300,000 additional property therefore costs £20,000 against £5,000 for a standard buyer — four times as much, on the same price. Scotland instead charges an Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% of the whole price on top of LBTT, and Wales uses a separate higher LTT table starting at 5%. Non-resident buyers in England and Northern Ireland face a further 2 percentage points on top of the rate that otherwise applies, and both surcharges can apply together.
First-time-buyer relief has its own cliff, and it is sharper than any surcharge. In England and Northern Ireland, qualifying buyers pay nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% to £500,000 — but above £500,000 the relief disappears entirely and standard rates apply to the whole price, so a £500,100 purchase can cost £15,005 against £10,000 at £500,000. Scotland’s first-time relief instead raises the nil-rate band to £175,000, with no price cliff, and Wales has no separate first-time relief — its £225,000 nil-rate band does the work. Check the cliff before offering: £100 over the line can cost thousands.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers, with worked examples.
How is UK stamp duty calculated?
In slices: each band’s rate applies only to the part of the price inside that band. A £500,000 standard purchase is £0 on the first £125,000, 2% (£2,500) on the next £125,000, and 5% (£12,500) on the last £250,000 — £15,000 total.
Do first-time buyers pay stamp duty?
Up to £300,000, no. Between £300,001 and £500,000 they pay 5% on the slice above £300,000 — so £7,500 on a £450,000 home. Above £500,000 there is no relief at all and standard rates apply to the whole price.
How much is stamp duty on a second home?
Five points more on every band: 5/7/10/15/17% instead of 0/2/5/10/12%. A £300,000 additional property costs £20,000 in SDLT, against £5,000 for a standard buyer.
Does stamp duty apply in Scotland or Wales?
No — Scotland has LBTT and Wales has LTT, with their own bands and reliefs. This calculator is for England and Northern Ireland SDLT only.
When must SDLT be paid?
The return must be filed and the tax paid within 14 days of completion. In practice your solicitor or conveyancer files it, but the legal deadline is the buyer’s.
Is stamp duty rounded?
Yes — the final SDLT figure is rounded down to the nearest whole pound. A computed £0.02 on a £125,001 purchase rounds down to £0.
Does stamp duty apply to a gift or transfer of property?
It depends on whether consideration changes hands. SDLT, LBTT and LTT are charged on the consideration for a land transaction, so a genuine gift with no money or debt taken over generally gives rise to no charge, while a transfer that takes over a mortgage, or where the recipient pays anything of value, is charged on that consideration. Transfers between spouses or civil partners, and transfers on divorce or separation, have their own exemptions and reliefs, and the rules differ between the three taxes. A conveyancer should confirm the treatment before the transfer is made — getting it wrong can mean a missed return as well as a missed payment.
Can I claim a refund if I sell my previous home after buying a new one?
Generally yes, if the conditions are met. Where the higher additional-property rates were paid because you owned two homes at completion, selling your previous main residence within the allowed window — generally three years — entitles you to reclaim the additional amount, subject to a claim to the relevant revenue authority with evidence of both transactions. The window, the claim form, and the treatment of the replacement home differ between SDLT, LBTT and LTT, and the claim must be made in time: an unclaimed refund is not paid automatically. Keep both completion statements, because the refund claim is proved from them.