SDLT Guide: Stamp Duty Land Tax UK 2026/27 — Rates, Bands, Reliefs and Five Worked Examples

Stamp Duty Land Tax is a tax HMRC levies on residential and non-residential property purchases in England and Northern Ireland above a price threshold. It applies to freehold purchases, new and existing leaseholds, shared-ownership transactions, and any transfer where you take on debt or pay consideration in some other form (for example, taking over the seller's mortgage as part-payment). It is a buyer tax — not a seller tax — and it is charged on the consideration paid, not on the mortgage amount or the surveyor's valuation.

Where SDLT does and does not apply. SDLT only covers England and Northern Ireland. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), administered by Revenue Scotland. Wales charges Land Transaction Tax (LTT), administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority. The bands, thresholds and reliefs differ in each nation, and the gap is wider than most buyers realise — at £600,000, the LBTT bill is £33,350 against an SDLT bill of £20,000. Always check which regime applies before you start budgeting.

The 14-day filing deadline. You must submit an SDLT return to HMRC and pay the tax within 14 days of completion. Your solicitor or conveyancer will normally handle the filing as part of the conveyancing process and add the SDLT amount to the completion statement, but the legal liability rests with you. Late filing attracts a £100 fixed penalty if you are up to three months late, £200 if more than three months late, plus interest on any unpaid tax. The full rules are at gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax.

Where SDLT does not apply or is reduced. Transfers between spouses or civil partners as part of a divorce or separation are exempt under HMRC's connected-party rules. Property left in a will is exempt from SDLT (inheritance tax may apply separately). Genuine gifts of property where no consideration changes hands are also exempt — but a gift carrying a mortgage is treated as consideration for the outstanding debt and SDLT is charged on that amount. Shared-ownership purchases are treated specially: you can either pay SDLT on the initial share at acquisition rates or elect to pay on the full market value upfront (the latter usually wins if you intend to staircase to 100% within a few years).

If you are still working out whether you can afford to buy at all, our first-time buyer mortgage checklist walks through deposit, affordability and rate selection. The mortgages hub covers porting, remortgaging and rate trends. SDLT is the upfront cost most buyers underestimate, and the only one that grows with the purchase price after every other cost is fixed.

SDLT uses a progressive, slice-based system. You pay the rate for each band only on the portion of the price that falls within that band, not on the whole purchase. Crossing a threshold by £1 only costs you the marginal rate on that £1 — the rest of your tax is unchanged. This matters because the press routinely reports SDLT in cliff-edge terms, but only one cliff exists in the standard tables (the first-time buyer relief at £500,000), and the rest is pure marginal arithmetic.

Standard residential rates from 1 April 2025 to date (single property, UK resident, not first-time buyer):

• Up to £125,000: 0%
• £125,001 to £250,000: 2%
• £250,001 to £925,000: 5%
• £925,001 to £1,500,000: 10%
• Above £1,500,000: 12%

SDLT cost across the band thresholds for three buyer types. The bar chart below plots the actual SDLT bill at £250k, £500k, £750k, £1m and £1.5m for a main-residence (mover) buyer, a first-time buyer (FTB) and a second-home or buy-to-let buyer. Two patterns matter. First, the FTB advantage is at its widest at £500k, where relief saves £5,000 — the maximum possible saving — and then collapses to zero at £500,001 because relief vanishes entirely above the cap. Second, the additional-property line accelerates fastest because every band carries the full 5-percentage-point surcharge, not a flat fee.

The official HMRC bands page is at gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/residential-property-rates. The HMRC SDLT calculator at tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax is authoritative for any edge case (mixed-use property, leaseholds, linked transactions). Our own SDLT calculator uses the same bands and produces the same answer for the standard cases — within £1 of the HMRC tool every time we have tested it.

Theory and tables are useful only if you can map them onto a real purchase. These five worked examples cover the buyer profiles that account for roughly 95% of completing transactions in England and Northern Ireland.

Example A — First-time buyer at £350,000. Relief sets the nil-rate band at £300,000 and charges 5% on the £300,001–£500,000 slice. SDLT = 0% × £300,000 + 5% × £50,000 = £2,500. A non-FTB buying the same property pays £7,500 (£2,500 in the £125k–£250k band + £5,000 in the £250k–£350k slice), so the relief saves the FTB exactly £5,000.

Example B — Main-residence mover at £600,000. Standard bands apply: 0% × £125,000 + 2% × £125,000 + 5% × £350,000 = £20,000. This is the typical second-stepper purchase outside London — and the SDLT bill alone wipes out a 3-4% deposit improvement compared with a smaller home, so the marginal mortgage saving from a bigger deposit can be a false economy if it pulls you over the next band.

Example C — Second home or buy-to-let at £450,000. The 5% additional-property surcharge stacks on every band: 5% × £125,000 + 7% × £125,000 + 10% × £200,000 = £35,000. The same property as a main residence costs £12,500 in SDLT — so the surcharge alone is £22,500 on a £450,000 purchase. For BTL specifically, that £22,500 is a non-deductible capital cost (it is added to the property's base cost for CGT purposes when you sell, but you cannot offset it against rental income). Run the gross-yield maths before you exchange — at a 5% gross yield, £22,500 of extra SDLT is 4.5 years of pre-tax rent.

Example D — Non-UK-resident buyer at £750,000. The 2% non-resident surcharge stacks on top of standard rates: 2% × £125,000 + 4% × £125,000 + 7% × £500,000 = £42,500. A UK-resident buyer at the same price pays £27,500. Non-resident here means failing the 183-days-in-12-months test at completion — but if you spend 183 days in the UK in the 12 months following completion, you can reclaim the surcharge from HMRC.

Example E — High-value purchase at £1,500,000. The full standard table runs out: 0% × £125,000 + 2% × £125,000 + 5% × £675,000 + 10% × £575,000 = £93,750. Anything above £1.5m attracts 12%, so a £2m purchase adds a further £60,000 (12% × £500,000) for a £153,750 SDLT bill. This is the band where SDLT and CGT planning start to interact materially — a couple buying jointly should structure ownership before exchange, not after, because HMRC's spousal-transfer exemption does not save SDLT on the purchase itself.

First-time buyer relief is the single biggest discount in the SDLT system — and the only one with a hard cap that vanishes entirely if you cross it. Two rules make it work and one rule trips up borderline buyers every month.

Rule 1 — qualifying status. All buyers (joint or sole) must be first-time buyers. If your partner has ever owned a residential property anywhere in the world — including an inherited share — neither of you qualifies, even if only one name goes on the deed. HMRC's definition is at gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-relief-for-first-time-buyers.

Rule 2 — the band structure. Up to £300,000: 0%. £300,001 to £500,000: 5%. The relief is mechanical — you do not need to claim it separately — but your conveyancer must tick the FTB box on the SDLT return.

Rule 3 — the £500,000 cliff. Buy at £500,000 and pay £10,000 SDLT (5% × £200,000). Buy at £500,001 and pay the full standard rate of £15,000 — a step change of £5,000 for one extra pound of purchase price. There is no taper. This is the most important number a first-time buyer needs to know in 2026: the cliff is sharp, it is unique to FTB relief, and it is a real lever in price negotiation. If a vendor is asking £505,000 and you are an FTB, an offer at £499,950 saves £5,000 in SDLT against the asking price for a discount of just over 1%.

The maximum saving from FTB relief is £5,000, achieved at any purchase price between £300,001 and £500,000. Below £300,000 your saving equals the SDLT a non-FTB would pay on that price. Above £500,000 your saving is zero. The relief works best for the typical FTB outside London buying in the £300k–£500k corridor — it is essentially worthless for inner-London FTBs at the £600k+ mark, who pay full standard rates.

The Lifetime ISA tops up first-time-buyer deposits with a 25% government bonus on contributions up to £4,000 a year, and works inside the same £500,000 property cap as FTB SDLT relief. Our Lifetime ISA explainer covers the rules and the most common withdrawal traps. Pair the LISA with FTB SDLT relief and the combined Treasury support on a £450,000 purchase reaches roughly £7,500 — £2,500 in SDLT saved against the standard buyer rate, plus up to £5,000 in LISA bonus already in your deposit pot.

Buy a residential property in England or Northern Ireland and you already own another residential property anywhere in the world worth £40,000 or more, and the 5% additional-property surcharge applies. The surcharge has been at 5% since 31 October 2024, having jumped from 3% in Rachel Reeves's first Budget. It stacks on top of every standard band, including the 0% band — so you pay 5% from the first pound of the purchase price, not just on the slice above £125,000.

The surcharge band structure (5% on every band):

• £0–£125,000: 5%
• £125,001–£250,000: 7%
• £250,001–£925,000: 10%
• £925,001–£1,500,000: 15%
• Above £1,500,000: 17%

Who is caught. The surcharge applies to second homes, buy-to-let purchases, holiday lets, and any purchase by a company. It also applies if you are buying a new main residence and your previous main residence does not complete on the same day — though in that case you can claim a refund within 36 months once the old home is sold (the 3-year refund window).

Multiple dwellings relief — abolished. Until 1 June 2024, buyers of multiple dwellings in a single transaction could elect to apply SDLT to the average price per dwelling, often producing a sharply lower bill. MDR was abolished by the Spring Budget 2024, with transitional protection only for contracts exchanged on or before 6 March 2024. As of May 2026 there is no equivalent relief in the residential SDLT system, and buy-to-let portfolio purchases are now taxed dwelling-by-dwelling at full rates plus surcharge. This is a meaningful change for landlord acquisitions — a £1m portfolio of four £250,000 flats now attracts £75,000 in SDLT (£15,000 on each as a single purchase plus 5% surcharge × 4 = £75,000) where the same purchase pre-MDR-abolition would have attracted closer to £40,000 with the relief claimed.

Is buy-to-let still worth it after the surcharge? That is the structural question every prospective landlord should answer before exchange. Our buy-to-let economics analysis runs the gross-yield, mortgage-cost and tax-leakage maths against an equivalent stocks-and-shares ISA over a 25-year horizon. The SDLT surcharge alone is rarely the deal-breaker — it is the surcharge plus Section 24 mortgage-interest restrictions plus capital gains tax at 18%/24% on disposal that pushes net post-tax returns below a 7% nominal equity portfolio.

Since 1 April 2021, buyers who fail HMRC's residency test pay an additional 2 percentage points on every band when buying residential property in England or Northern Ireland over £40,000. The surcharge applies in addition to standard rates and to the 5% additional-property surcharge if both apply.

The residency test. You are non-resident for SDLT purposes if you are not present in the UK for at least 183 days during the 12 months immediately before your purchase. Presence is determined by location at the end of each calendar day, counting any day spent anywhere in the UK. The test is applied at the effective date of the transaction (normally completion). If any one buyer in a joint purchase fails the test, all buyers are treated as non-resident — except for married couples and civil partners, where one UK-resident spouse pulls the other onto the resident side of the line.

The refund route. If you spend at least 183 days in the UK in the 12 months following completion, you can reclaim the 2% surcharge from HMRC within two years of the transaction date. This makes the surcharge effectively a deposit for buyers planning to relocate to the UK — pay it at completion, claim it back once you have proof of presence. Full guidance is at gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-stamp-duty-land-tax-for-non-uk-residents.

What it means for typical purchases.

• £350,000 main residence, non-resident: 2% × £125k + 4% × £125k + 7% × £100k = £2,500 + £5,000 + £7,000 = £14,500. The surcharge adds £7,000 (2% × £350,000) to a £7,500 standard bill — almost doubles it.
• £750,000 main residence, non-resident: £42,500 (£27,500 standard + £15,000 surcharge), as in Example D.
• £450,000 buy-to-let, non-resident: 7% × £125k + 9% × £125k + 12% × £200k = £8,750 + £11,250 + £24,000 = £44,000. The combined surcharges add £31,500 to a £12,500 standard bill — over 3.5×.

For non-resident landlords specifically, the maths now points hard towards UK-resident structuring (a UK-resident family member, a UK company that itself meets residency tests) before the purchase rather than refund-engineering after the fact.

The three regimes diverge sharply at most price points, and which side of the border you buy on changes the bill more than most cost-of-buying comparisons reveal. The headline: Scotland's LBTT punishes mid-range purchases between £350k and £750k harder than England, and Wales's LTT has no first-time buyer relief at all but a higher starting threshold (£225k vs £125k).

Bands at a glance:

• SDLT (England / NI): 0%/2%/5%/10%/12% at £125k / £250k / £925k / £1.5m. FTB relief: nil to £300k, 5% to £500k, none above. Additional-property surcharge: +5%. Non-resident surcharge: +2%.
• LBTT (Scotland): 0%/2%/5%/10%/12% at £145k / £250k / £325k / £750k. FTB relief: nil rate raised to £175k (max saving £600). Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS): 8% from 5 December 2024 (up from 6%).
• LTT (Wales): 0%/6%/7.5%/10%/12% at £225k / £400k / £750k / £1.5m. No first-time buyer relief. Higher rates for additional dwellings: 5%/8.5%/10%/12.5%/15%/17% from 11 December 2024.

The bill at four price points (main-residence, non-FTB):

The LBTT premium versus SDLT widens with price. At £350,000 the gap is £850 (a rounding error against legal fees). At £600,000 it is £13,350. At £1.5m it is £44,600 — enough to fund an entire deposit on a separate buy-to-let. This is the single most important comparison for buyers considering relocation between England and Scotland in the £500k+ price range, and one of the few financial decisions where geography materially changes the maths.

LBTT rates and rules: revenue.scot/taxes/land-buildings-transaction-tax/residential-property. LTT rates and rules: gov.wales/land-transaction-tax-rates-and-bands. Scotland's ADS is now 8% — three percentage points above SDLT's 5% surcharge — which is reshaping the cross-border landlord calculus in 2026.

The fastest way to get an accurate SDLT bill is the HMRC calculator or our own SDLT calculator — both produce the same answer. But the slice-based arithmetic is straightforward enough to do on the back of an envelope, and you should be able to sanity-check any solicitor's completion statement before you sign. Here is the exact method.

Step 1 — confirm your buyer category.

• First-time buyer (all buyers must qualify, purchase price ≤ £500,000): use the FTB rates (0% to £300k, 5% on £300k–£500k).
• Main-residence mover (you have owned property before but are replacing your primary home): use standard rates.
• Additional property (second home, BTL, holiday let, company purchase): use standard rates plus the 5% surcharge.
• Non-UK resident: add 2% to whichever rate applies above.

Step 2 — apply the bands.

For a standard purchase of £P (where £P ≤ £1.5m):

• 0% on the first £125,000
• 2% on the slice from £125,001 to £250,000 (max £2,500)
• 5% on the slice from £250,001 to £925,000 (max £33,750)
• 10% on the slice from £925,001 to £1,500,000 (max £57,500)
• 12% on anything above £1,500,000

Step 3 — worked example, mover at £625,000. Calculate slice by slice: 0% × £125,000 = £0. 2% × £125,000 = £2,500. 5% × £375,000 = £18,750. Total: £21,250.

Step 4 — apply surcharges. If you are buying an additional property, add 5% × £625,000 = £31,250, for a total of £52,500. If you are also non-resident, add a further 2% × £625,000 = £12,500, for a total of £65,000. Surcharges always apply to the whole purchase price, not slice-by-slice — that is the one place the arithmetic is not progressive.

Step 5 — file and pay within 14 days of completion. Your solicitor will normally do this, but you remain legally responsible. Confirm the SDLT figure on the completion statement matches your calculation before you wire the completion funds — solicitor errors at this stage are rare but unrecoverable, because HMRC pursues the buyer not the conveyancer for any shortfall.

If you are a first-time buyer above the £300,000 nil-rate threshold, double-check the relief box is ticked on the SDLT return; we have seen cases where conveyancers default to standard rates on the digital form and the buyer overpays by up to £5,000 without realising. The error is correctable for up to four years via an SDLT amendment, but the cash sits with HMRC until you spot it.

Pair the SDLT bill with our mortgage calculator and you have the two largest variables in your completion-day budget locked in before you make an offer. Check the mortgages hub for current rate trends and the first-time buyer scheme catalogue for everything from shared ownership to the Lifetime ISA — the first-time buyer who plans the SDLT bill, the LISA bonus and the deposit-saving timeline together typically lands on a property £20,000–£30,000 cheaper than they could buy without that planning.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or tax advice. SDLT rules can be complex in edge cases (mixed-use property, linked transactions, non-individual purchasers, shared ownership staircasing). You should seek independent advice from a qualified conveyancer or tax adviser before making any property purchase decisions.