What Is Stamp Duty?
If you buy a property in the UK over a certain purchase price you have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). This is charged on all purchases of houses, flats and other land and buildings.
What is Stamp Duty Land Tax?
SDLT replaced Stamp Duty in December 2003 and is a tax on the purchase price of land and buildings. When you buy a property or take on a lease you may have to pay SDLT.
Paying SDLT
If you buy either a freehold or a leasehold property and the purchase price is more than £125,000, you pay SDLT of between one and five per cent of the whole purchase price. See the table below for more detail.
If the purchase price is £125,000 or less you don’t pay any SDLT.
First-time buyers
If you are a first-time buyer the threshold for when you start to pay SDLT is £250,000. This is only if you have never owned a house or flat in the UK or anywhere else in the world. If you are buying with someone else they must never have owned property before either. This higher threshold applies to purchases made on or after 25 March 2010 and before 25 March 2012.
| Purchase price of residential property | Rate of SDLT (percentage of the total purchase price) | Rate of SDLT – first-time buyers (percentage of the total purchase price) |
|---|---|---|
| £0 – £125,000 | 0% | 0% |
| £125,001 – £250,000 | 1% | 0% |
| £250,001 – £500,000 | 3% | 3% |
| £500,001 – £1 million | 4% | 4% |
| £1 million or more | 5% | 5% |
You can check current rates of SDLT on the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website.
