UK Stamp Duty Land Tax Calculator

SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax) is the tax you pay HMRC when you buy property or land in England or Northern Ireland. Other countries charge something similar under other names, transfer tax and conveyance duty among them, but the bands on this page are the English and Northern Irish ones.

The formula: Stamp Duty = Σ (Band Width × Band Rate)

Rates apply slice by slice, the same way income tax brackets do. Crossing into the 5% band does not put your whole purchase on 5%; it only taxes the part of the price above that threshold.

What each variable means:

• Band Width: the portion of the purchase price that falls within each tax bracket.
• Band Rate: the percentage applied to that portion.
• Effective Rate: total tax ÷ purchase price (always lower than the top marginal rate).

The rates this calculator uses (England and Northern Ireland, from 1 April 2025):

First-time buyers pay nothing up to £300,000 and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000. Above a £500,000 purchase price the relief disappears completely and standard rates apply to the whole amount, which makes £500,000 a genuinely painful cliff edge: at £500,000 a first-time buyer pays £10,000, and at £500,001 they pay £15,000. Buyers who can get within a few thousand pounds of that line should negotiate hard to fall under it.

Two things changed recently and old calculators have not all caught up. The temporary nil-rate threshold of £250,000 ended on 31 March 2025 and dropped back to £125,000, and the first-time buyer threshold fell from £425,000 to £300,000 on the same date. The additional-property surcharge went from 3% to 5% on 31 October 2024.

Worked example (standard residential, current rates): Purchase price: £400,000

• £0–£125,000 at 0% = £0
• £125,001–£250,000 at 2% = £125,000 × 2% = £2,500
• £250,001–£400,000 at 5% = £150,000 × 5% = £7,500

Total stamp duty = £10,000 (effective rate: 2.5%)

The same £400,000 purchase costs a first-time buyer £5,000, and someone buying it as a second home or a rental £30,000.

Scotland and Wales are different taxes entirely. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, Wales charges Land Transaction Tax, and both have their own bands. This calculator does not cover either.

The surcharge stacks on every band, including the nil-rate one. This catches people out. A £300,000 flat costs a standard buyer £5,000. Bought as a second home or a buy-to-let it costs £20,000, four times as much, and £6,250 of that lands on the first £125,000 where the standard rate is zero. The slice everyone thinks of as tax free is not tax free for a landlord.

A few things the calculator does not model:

• The 2% non-resident surcharge. Buyers who have not spent at least 183 days in the UK in the twelve months before completion pay a further 2% on every band, and it stacks on top of the additional-property 5% where both apply.
• Mixed-use and non-residential rates. A property with a commercial element is taxed on a different, gentler table. It is a genuine planning route on some purchases and worth asking a conveyancer about rather than assuming.
• Multiple dwellings and linked transactions. Buying several properties in one deal changes the arithmetic, sometimes sharply.

Payment and the SDLT return are both due within 14 days of completion. Your conveyancer normally handles it, but the liability is yours, and HMRC charges interest from day 15.