Stamp Duty vs LTT vs LBTT: Which Property Tax You Pay and How Much (2026/27)

Rates on this page were checked against HMRC, the Welsh Revenue Authority and Revenue Scotland on 24 September 2026 and apply to residential purchases completing in the 2026/27 tax year.

"Stamp duty" is a nickname, and it only fits one of the three

People say "stamp duty" for any tax paid when buying a home, and estate agents, lenders and even some solicitors do the same. In everyday conversation that's fine. The trouble starts when you look up rates, because the figures most websites quote under "stamp duty" are SDLT figures, and SDLT only applies in England and Northern Ireland.

Does Scotland have stamp duty? Not any more. Scotland replaced SDLT with LBTT on 1 April 2015, after the Scotland Act 2012 handed control of property purchase tax to the Scottish Parliament.

Does Wales have stamp duty? No. LTT replaced SDLT in Wales on 1 April 2018, under powers devolved by the Wales Act 2014.

Is LTT the same as stamp duty? It does the same job and works in a similar way, but it's a different tax with its own law, its own rates and its own collector. The same goes for LBTT. A rate you read for "stamp duty" tells you nothing reliable about either of them.

Northern Ireland never got its own version. It uses exactly the same SDLT rates, reliefs and surcharges as England, and HMRC collects the tax in both.

One more wrinkle: Stamp Duty in its original, pre-2003 sense still exists, but today it mainly applies to certain purchases of shares rather than property. If you're buying a home, you can ignore it.

The property's address decides, not yours

This trips up people moving between nations more than anything else. The tax follows the building, not the buyer.

• You live in Cardiff and buy a flat in Bristol: you pay SDLT.
• You live in Newcastle and buy a cottage in the Scottish Borders: you pay LBTT.
• You live in Edinburgh and buy a holiday let in Pembrokeshire: you pay LTT.

Where you live, work or pay Income Tax doesn't change which property tax applies. If a property sits close to the English and Welsh border and you're not sure which side it's on, the Welsh Revenue Authority has a postcode checker for LTT.

One knock-on effect worth knowing: property you already own elsewhere still counts when deciding whether a surcharge applies. A flat in Manchester can push a Scottish purchase into the Additional Dwelling Supplement, and a home abroad can do the same for a purchase in England. More on that below.

SDLT, LTT and LBTT compared

If you only remember one line from that table, make it this: Wales is kindest at the bottom of the market, Scotland gets expensive quickly above £325,000, and England is the cheapest of the three for most buyers once prices pass £350,000. England and Northern Ireland are also far more generous to first-time buyers than either Wales or Scotland.

How the band system works (and how to check a bill yourself)

All three taxes are charged in slices. Each rate applies only to the part of the price that falls inside its band, never to the whole price. A £300,000 house in England isn't taxed at 5%; only the £50,000 above £250,000 is.

You can work out any standard bill in three steps:

1. Split the price into the slices shown in the rate table for your nation.
2. Multiply each slice by its rate.
3. Add the results together.

Take a £400,000 home in Wales. The first £225,000 is taxed at 0%, and the remaining £175,000 falls in the 6% band. 6% of £175,000 is £10,500, so the LTT bill is £10,500.

Because of the slicing, going just over a threshold never makes the bill jump. Moving from £250,000 to £251,000 in England adds 5% of £1,000, which is £50.

There are two big exceptions to that smooth curve:

• Scotland's ADS is a flat 8% of the entire price, not a banded rate.
• England's first-time buyer relief switches off completely above £500,000, so the bill leaps by £5,000 at that point.

Current rates in each nation

SDLT in England and Northern Ireland

First-time buyers pay 0% on the first £300,000 and 5% on the part between £300,001 and £500,000. These bands have been in place since 1 April 2025, when the temporary higher thresholds ended. Source: GOV.UK residential SDLT rates.

LTT in Wales

Wales publishes its main and higher rates as two tables with different band edges; they're merged here so you can read across. The higher rates rose by one percentage point for purchases with an effective date from 11 December 2024. Any guide still quoting a 4% to 16% higher-rate table is out of date. Source: GOV.WALES LTT rates and bands.

LBTT in Scotland

First-time buyers get a 0% band up to £175,000 instead of £145,000. If you'll own more than one home after the purchase, ADS of 8% of the full price is added on top. The Scottish Budget for 2026/27 left all of these rates unchanged. Sources: Revenue Scotland residential rates and Revenue Scotland ADS guidance.

One £300,000 home, three nations, three buyers

The workings:

England, moving home: 0% on the first £125,000, then 2% of £125,000 (£2,500), then 5% of the last £50,000 (£2,500). Total £5,000.

England, first-time buyer: the whole price sits inside the £300,000 nil band. Total £0.

England, second home: 5% of £125,000 (£6,250), plus 7% of £125,000 (£8,750), plus 10% of £50,000 (£5,000). Total £20,000.

Wales, moving home or first-time buyer: 0% on the first £225,000, then 6% of £75,000. Total £4,500 for both, because Wales has no first-time buyer relief.

Wales, second home: 5% of £180,000 (£9,000), plus 8.5% of £70,000 (£5,950), plus 10% of £50,000 (£5,000). Total £19,950.

Scotland, moving home: 0% on the first £145,000, then 2% of £105,000 (£2,100), then 5% of £50,000 (£2,500). Total £4,600.

Scotland, first-time buyer: 0% on the first £175,000, then 2% of £75,000 (£1,500), then 5% of £50,000 (£2,500). Total £4,000.

Scotland, second home: the normal £4,600, plus ADS at 8% of £300,000 (£24,000). Total £28,600.

These assume a straightforward purchase of a single home at the full price. Your conveyancer will confirm the exact figure for your own purchase.

Which nation charges the least?

It depends almost entirely on the price. For someone moving home who won't own any other property once the purchase completes:

Reading the table as price bands, the cheapest place to buy is:

• Up to £125,000: no tax anywhere.
• £125,001 to £310,000: Wales. Between £125,001 and £145,000 Scotland also charges nothing, and Wales stays at £0 all the way to £225,000.
• £310,000 to about £328,750: Scotland, narrowly. At £320,000, for example, LBTT is £5,600 against £5,700 in Wales and £6,000 in England.
• About £328,750 to £350,000: Wales again.
• Above £350,000: England and Northern Ireland, and the gap keeps widening.

Is LTT higher than SDLT?

For a home mover, LTT is lower than SDLT on anything up to £350,000, where the two meet at exactly £7,500. Above £350,000, LTT is higher. Once the price passes £925,000 the gap settles at a flat £18,000.

Is LBTT higher than SDLT?

Below £333,000, LBTT is a little lower than SDLT. The two are equal at £333,000 (£6,650 each). Above that, Scotland's 10% band, which starts at £325,001 rather than at £925,001 as in England, pushes LBTT well ahead. On a £500,000 home the Scottish bill is £8,350 higher; on a £1 million home it's £34,600 higher.

Is LTT higher than LBTT?

Usually not. Wales is cheaper than Scotland at every price except a narrow window between £310,000 and about £328,750, where Scotland wins by up to £150. Above £350,000 Scotland is the most expensive of the three.

First-time buyers: the biggest gap between the nations

England and Northern Ireland give first-time buyers the most valuable relief in the UK: no SDLT up to £300,000 and 5% on the next £200,000. To qualify, you and everyone buying with you must never have owned a home anywhere in the world, and you must be buying the property to live in. The catch is the £500,000 ceiling. At £500,000 the bill is £10,000. At £500,001 the relief disappears and the bill becomes £15,000.

Scotland extends the 0% band from £145,000 to £175,000. The most it can save is £600, but there's no upper price limit, so a first-time buyer paying £450,000 in Edinburgh gets the same £600 off as one paying £180,000 in Dundee.

Wales has no first-time buyer relief. The Welsh approach is a higher starting threshold for everyone instead: no LTT at all on the first £225,000, whether it's your first home or your fifth.

A first-time buyer in England or Northern Ireland never pays more than one buying at the same price in Wales or Scotland. Between £250,000 and £500,000 the saving is at least £1,500, and often far more.

Buying with a partner who has owned before? Then neither of you counts as a first-time buyer in England, Northern Ireland or Scotland, and you'll pay the standard rates (or the higher rates, if your partner still owns that property). If you're buying a share of a home rather than the whole thing, the shared ownership calculator shows the monthly cost side of the decision.

Second homes, buy-to-let and the higher rates

All three nations charge more if you'll own more than one residential property at the end of the day you complete. They just do it in three different ways.

• England and Northern Ireland add 5 percentage points to every SDLT band, so even the first £125,000 is taxed at 5%. The extra always works out at exactly 5% of the price.
• Wales replaces the main rates with its separate higher-rate table. The extra over the main rates varies with the price, from about 4.9% to 5.7%.
• Scotland keeps the normal LBTT bands and adds ADS at a flat 8% of the full price. On a £300,000 purchase that's £24,000 extra, against £15,000 in England and £15,450 in Wales.

For additional properties, England and Wales are remarkably close. Up to £125,000 the bills are identical. From there to £402,000 Wales is slightly cheaper (by up to £1,100 at £180,000, and by just £50 between £250,000 and £400,000), and above £402,000 England is cheaper. Scotland is the most expensive of the three at every price.

Who and what counts

The rules are broadly similar across the three nations, with some differences that matter:

• Property anywhere in the world counts. A flat in Spain or a house you inherited in Ireland can trigger the higher rates on a UK purchase.
• Married couples and civil partners are treated as one unit. If either of you owns a home, the higher rates can apply even if only the other is buying. In Scotland, the same approach extends to cohabiting couples.
• Joint buyers are tested individually. If any one buyer already owns a home, the higher rates apply to the whole purchase. This is the classic trap when a parent who owns their own home goes on the title deeds to help a child buy.
• Helping without owning can be different. The Welsh Revenue Authority's own guidance gives the example of a parent helping through a joint borrower, sole proprietor mortgage: because the parent isn't a legal owner, the purchase isn't charged at the higher rates. Check the position with your conveyancer before you choose a mortgage structure.
• Cheap property is ignored. In all three nations, a purchase under £40,000 doesn't attract the higher rates or ADS, and a property you already own worth under £40,000 isn't counted. Scotland applies the £40,000 test to your own share of a jointly owned property, for purchases from 1 April 2024.
• Caravans, houseboats and mobile homes generally don't count in England or Wales.

If you're replacing your main home

If your old home sells before or on the day you complete on the new one, the higher rates usually don't apply at all. The problem is the overlap. If you buy first and sell later, you'll own two homes for a while and pay the higher rates on completion.

You can get the extra back if you sell your previous main home within three years (36 months in Scotland's wording) of buying the new one, and the other conditions are met:

• England and Northern Ireland: claim the refund from HMRC within 12 months of the later of the sale and the filing date of your SDLT return.
• Wales: claim the difference between the higher and main rates from the Welsh Revenue Authority. Watch the "intermediate transaction" rule: if you buy another property, such as a buy-to-let, between selling your old home and buying your new one, you may have to look back and pay the higher rates. SDLT has no equivalent rule.
• Scotland: reclaim the ADS from Revenue Scotland if you sell within 36 months and have lived in the new property as your main home. For purchases from 1 April 2024, only one of the buyers needs to have sold a previous main home. Revenue Scotland says it can't consider exceptional circumstances if you miss the conditions.

Official guidance for each: HMRC higher rates, Welsh higher rates overview and Revenue Scotland ADS.

If you're buying to let, the purchase tax is only the first bill. The buy-to-let landlord tax guide covers the tax on rental profits, the rental income tax calculator estimates it, and the buy-to-let mortgage calculator shows whether the rent covers the borrowing. When you eventually sell a second home, the capital gains tax calculator works out what's due on the gain.

Buying from outside the UK

England and Northern Ireland charge an extra 2% on residential purchases by buyers who aren't UK resident for SDLT purposes. You count as non-resident if you weren't in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase. That test is separate from your residence status for Income Tax.

The 2% stacks on top of everything else, including first-time buyer relief and the 5% additional property rates. On a £300,000 home in England:

Wales and Scotland have no non-resident surcharge. Source: GOV.UK SDLT for non-UK residents.

Commercial, mixed-use and bulk purchases

The three nations also set different rates for shops, offices, farmland and mixed-use buildings such as a shop with a flat above. For a freehold purchase:

On a £500,000 commercial or mixed-use purchase, that's £14,500 in England, £12,750 in Wales and £13,500 in Scotland. Wales's extra 6% band above £1 million means it overtakes the other two once the price passes about £1.2 million.

A few other differences that catch investors and businesses out:

• Mixed-use buildings pay non-residential rates, and in England and Wales they don't attract the higher residential rates.
• Six or more homes bought in one transaction are taxed at non-residential rates in England and Scotland. Multiple Dwellings Relief was abolished for SDLT from 1 June 2024. Wales still lets buyers of six or more choose between non-residential rates and higher rates with Multiple Dwellings Relief, but since 13 February 2026 the relief can't take the tax below 3% of the price.
• Companies usually pay the higher rates on residential property in all three nations, even on their first purchase. In England and Northern Ireland, a flat 17% rate can apply to a company buying a home for more than £500,000.
• New residential leases are taxed differently. SDLT can charge 1% on the value of the rent above £125,000, whereas in Wales LTT is charged only on any premium, not on the rent.

For any of these, take specialist advice. Our calculator covers standard residential purchases only.

Paying the tax and filing the return

In practice, your solicitor or conveyancer files the return and pays the tax from your completion funds, so you'll see it as a line on their completion statement. The legal responsibility is still yours, and all three authorities charge penalties and interest when a return or payment is late.

• SDLT: return and payment to HMRC within 14 days of completion.
• LTT: payment to the Welsh Revenue Authority within 30 days, counted from the day after the effective date (usually completion).
• LBTT: return to Revenue Scotland within 30 days of the effective date, with the tax paid at the same time.

A return is often needed even when the tax works out at £0. In Scotland, for example, most residential purchases of £40,000 or more must be reported.

Property tax isn't the only charge on completion. In England and Wales you'll also pay HM Land Registry to register the new owner, and the Land Registry fees calculator works out that cost.

Will these rates change?

They can, and each government changes its own. The current SDLT bands have applied since 1 April 2025, and no further changes have been announced. The Welsh Government kept LTT rates and thresholds the same for 2026/27. The Scottish Budget did the same for LBTT, and the Scottish Government has been running a wider review of the tax, including first-time buyer relief. Rate changes are normally announced at budget time and sometimes take effect the next day, so if your purchase completes well after the date at the top of this page, check the official source for your nation.

Work out your own figure

Everything above assumes an individual or couple buying one residential property at full price. Your own bill can change with shared ownership, a lease, a company or trust purchase, a mixed-use building or several homes at once. This guide explains how the taxes work; it isn't tax advice for your circumstances, so confirm the figure with your conveyancer or the relevant tax authority before you exchange.

To get an estimate now, use the MySums stamp duty calculator for SDLT, LTT and LBTT. Choose the nation, enter the price and pick first-time buyer, standard or additional property.

Rates and rules checked: 24 September 2026. Covers residential and non-residential purchases in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.