Stamp Duty Land Tax Explained
The bands, the first-time buyer relief cliff-edge at £500,000, and a calculator to work out your own
SDLT is charged on residential property purchases in England and Northern Ireland. Scotland and Wales run their own separate systems, so the figures on this page don't apply there. Like Income Tax, it's charged in progressive bands, not a single flat rate on the whole price: only the slice of the purchase price that falls into each band is taxed at that band's rate.
The standard bands
Only the portion of the price in each band is taxed at that band's rate, not the whole price at whichever band it reaches.
| Portion of purchase price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | 5% |
| £925,001 to £1,500,000 | 10% |
| £1,500,000 and above | 12% |
Stamp Duty Land Tax Calculator
Purchase details
Stamp Duty due
Enter a purchase price to see the result.
First-time buyer relief, and its cliff edge
A first-time buyer pays nothing up to £300,000 and 5% on the slice between £300,000 and £500,000. What's more important is what happens when you pay over £500,000; go a single pound over and the relief disappears entirely. The purchase is taxed on the standard bands across the whole price instead, not just the amount above the limit. A first-time buyer choosing between a £499,999 home and a £500,001 one faces a different SDLT bill, not a marginal difference.
The additional-property surcharge
Buying a second home, a buy-to-let, or any residential property while you already own another adds 5% to every standard band, including the 0% band. That means an additional property is never duty-free on its first £125,000 the way a single home is.
| Buyer type | SDLT due | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (moving home) | £7,500 | 2.1% |
| First-time buyer | £2,500 | 0.7% |
| Additional property | £25,000 | 7.1% |
All three rows: a £350,000 purchase.
This page explains general Stamp Duty Land Tax rules and is not personalised advice; see the disclaimer. It doesn't cover shared ownership, multiple dwellings relief, non-resident surcharges, or purchases in Scotland or Wales, which have their own separate rules. See also Other Taxes for Fuel Duty, car tax, Insurance Premium Tax, and Council Tax.