Free Stamp Duty Land Tax Calculator (SDLT)
How much stamp duty will you pay? Enter your purchase price in the calculator below and you will have the answer in seconds, worked out with the latest SDLT bands from HMRC for England and Northern Ireland.
Source: GOV.UK residential Stamp Duty Land Tax rates, including first-time buyer relief, higher rates for additional properties and the non-resident surcharge.
Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is the tax you pay when you buy a property. What you pay depends on who you are: first-time buyers often pay less or nothing, while landlords, a property investment company and non-UK residents pay a surcharge on top of the standard rates. The calculator covers all of them.
How Stamp Duty Is Calculated
You do not pay one rate on the whole price. The price is cut into slices, and each slice is taxed at its own rate. For a standard buyer, the first slice up to £125,000 is tax free, the next slice up to £250,000 is taxed at 2%, and the slices above that at 5%, 10% and 12%.
Take a £300,000 home. The first £125,000 costs nothing, the next £125,000 is taxed at 2% (£2,500), and the final £50,000 is taxed at 5% (£2,500). Total stamp duty: £5,000. The calculator above shows this slice-by-slice breakdown for your own price.
The Chancellor reviews the bands at Budget time. The most recent SDLT update was in the Autumn Budget 2024, which set the bands that took effect on 1st April 2025. We check our calculator against HMRC's residential rates after every Budget.
The rates that apply to you are set by your completion date, so if you are mid-purchase, check where you are with exchange and completion on your property.
Stamp Duty Land Tax Rates (from 1st April 2025)
Rates for a Single Property
This table shows the SDLT rates for single residential properties purchased from 1 April 2025. No SDLT is charged on the slice up to £125,000; a 2% rate applies to the portion from £125,001 to £250,000; 5% applies to the next £675,000; 10% on the following £575,000; and 12% on any amount above £1.5 million.
| Property or Lease Premium / Transfer Value | SDLT Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | Zero |
| £125,001 to £250,000 (next £125,000) | 2% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 (next £675,000) | 5% |
| £925,001 to £1.5 million (next £575,000) | 10% |
| Above £1.5 million | 12% |
First-Time Buyer Discount
First-time buyers get their own thresholds. No SDLT is charged up to £300,000, and a 5% rate applies to the portion from £300,001 to £500,000. If the property costs more than £500,000, first-time buyer relief is not available and the standard rates above apply to the whole purchase.
| Property Value | SDLT for First-Time Buyers |
|---|---|
| Up to £300,000 | Zero |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | 5% |
Buy-to-Let Stamp Duty (Additional Properties)
If you already own one or more properties and buy another, a 5% surcharge is added to every band. This covers buy-to-let purchases, second homes and buying a holiday home, and it usually applies whenever the new property costs £40,000 or more.
The surcharge is often bigger than the underlying tax. On a £200,000 buy-to-let, a standard buyer would pay £1,500. An investor pays £11,500, because the 5% surcharge adds £10,000 on top. Experienced landlords treat it as a day-one entry cost alongside the other typical costs for buy-to-let landlords, and it is one of the first numbers to check when weighing up any investment property.
Buying through a limited company does not remove the higher-rate charge. Companies pay the higher rates too. There is more on how that works in our guide to buy-to-let taxation for limited companies.
One useful exception: if you are replacing your main residence and your previous home sells within 36 months of completing the new purchase, the surcharge does not apply, and if you already paid it you may be able to apply for an SDLT refund with HMRC.
If you are not a UK resident, defined as spending fewer than 183 days in the UK in the 12 months before your purchase, a further 2% surcharge applies on top. This affects many overseas investors, including those buying UK property from Hong Kong or Singapore.
The full HMRC guidance covers both cases:
Wales & Scotland
Stamp duty only covers England and Northern Ireland. Wales and Scotland charge their own property purchase taxes, with different names, bands and rates, so use the right calculator for the property's location:
- Wales Land Transaction Tax (LTT) Calculator
- Scotland Land & Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) Calculator
Stamp Duty FAQs
When do you pay stamp duty?
Within 14 days of completion. In practice, if you have a solicitor or conveyancer they will usually file the return and pay the tax on your behalf on the day you complete, then collect it as part of your completion funds.
What is an SDLT return?
The SDLT return is the form sent to HMRC that reports your purchase and works out the tax. Your solicitor normally files it for you, and one is usually required even when there is no tax to pay. HMRC's guidance on filing SDLT returns covers the deadlines and how to amend one.
Do first-time buyers pay stamp duty?
Not on the first £300,000. Between £300,001 and £500,000 they pay 5% on that slice only. Above £500,000 the relief disappears entirely and standard rates apply to the whole price. The rates tables above show both sets of thresholds.
Is stamp duty different for buy-to-let?
The bands are the same, but a 5% surcharge is added to every one of them when the property is not replacing your main home. On most buy-to-let purchases the surcharge ends up costing more than the standard tax itself. The buy-to-let section above has a worked example.
Can I add stamp duty to my mortgage?
Stamp duty is paid in cash at completion, so it cannot be added to the loan directly. Some buyers put down a smaller deposit to keep cash back for it, which raises the loan to value of the mortgage and usually the interest rate. A broker can run the numbers for your specific purchase.
Where Stamp Duty Came From
Stamp duty is one of the oldest taxes in the country. It was first introduced in England on 28th June 1694, and the name comes from the physical stamp that had to be impressed on the purchase documents. The paperwork has changed; the tax has never gone away.
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