Stamp duty calculator (UK)

Because property transaction tax is devolved, and has been for years. Three taxes, three authorities, three rate tables:

• Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland, collected by HM Revenue & Customs.
• Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland, collected by Revenue Scotland.
• Land Transaction Tax in Wales, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority.

The nil-rate bands alone run from £125,000 to £225,000 depending on which side of a border the property sits, and the reliefs differ more than the rates do. A calculator that applies English thresholds to a Scottish buyer is not slightly out; it is answering a different question.

In England and Northern Ireland it disappears. Not tapers, not reduces: at one pound over the cap the buyer pays standard rates on the entire price.

Scotland has no such cap. Its relief raises the nil-rate band to £175,000, worth a maximum of £600, and it keeps working at any price. So the cliff exists on one side of the border and not the other.

Wales has no first-time buyer relief at all. Its £225,000 nil-rate band, the highest of the three, is the substitute.

Three countries, three different mechanisms, and this is where most tools go wrong.

England and Northern Ireland add 5 percentage points to every band, raised from 3 on 2024-10-31. It is marginal, like the main table.

Scotland charges the Additional Dwelling Supplement at 8% of the entire purchase price, not of the amount above a threshold. It steps rather than tapers: nothing at £39,999, and £3,200 at £40,000. Raised from 6% on 2024-12-05, and repayable if the previous main residence is sold within 36 months.

Wales does not add a surcharge at all. It replaces the main table with a standalone one that starts at 5% from the first pound and has no nil-rate band. A tool modelling Wales as English rates plus a surcharge is wrong twice over: wrong main rates and wrong mechanism.

Three things at once in England and Northern Ireland, and any calculator built before that date is wrong:

• the temporary £250,000 nil-rate band reverted to £125,000
• the first-time buyer nil-rate band fell from £425,000 to £300,000
• the first-time buyer price cap fell from £625,000 to £500,000

None of those fell on a 6 April boundary. Property transaction taxes move at fiscal events rather than on the tax year, which is why the figures on this page carry their own review schedule rather than turning over each April.

Named rather than quietly left out, because a difference you cannot account for is one you will assume is somewhere else:

• Linked transactions — two or more purchases between the same buyer and seller are treated as one for rate purposes, which can push a cheap purchase into a higher band
• Mixed-use and non-residential property — a property with any commercial element uses an entirely different rate table in all three jurisdictions, usually a cheaper one
• Leasehold purchases with a rent element — the premium is taxed like a freehold price, and the rent is taxed separately on its net present value
• Companies and other non-natural persons — a flat 17% applies in England and Northern Ireland above £500,000. This page asks about individuals
• Multiple dwellings, shared ownership and probate sales — each has its own relief or its own basis, and none is a variation on the tables here
• Reclaiming the Scottish supplement — it is repayable if the previous main residence is sold within 36 months. The page shows the supplement as charged, not as it may later be refunded

The assumptions it does make: a residential freehold purchase, a single transaction, no linked transactions, no mixed use, and no leasehold premium or rent element.