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Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is the tax you pay when you buy land or property in England or Northern Ireland over a certain price. Most stamp duty calculators only handle houses and flats. This one also covers what we see clients buying before they call us for a topographical land survey: building plots, fields, paddocks, farmland, woodland and commercial sites, which are charged at different rates and catch a lot of buyers out.
Enter the price and what you are buying, and the calculator shows the tax due, the effective rate and how much falls in each band. The rates come from GOV.UK and HMRC, linked at the bottom of the page.
Stamp duty calculator (England and Northern Ireland)
Rates for purchases completing on or after 1 April 2025, checked against GOV.UK on 21 October 2026. An estimate only: see the notes below the calculator.
Current stamp duty rates
These rates apply to purchases in England and Northern Ireland completing on or after 1 April 2025. We last checked them against GOV.UK on 21 October 2026 and check them again after every Budget. Stamp duty is charged in bands, like income tax: each rate only applies to the part of the price that falls within that band.
Residential property
| Part of the price | Standard rate | Additional home or buy-to-let |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% | 5% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% | 7% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | 5% | 10% |
| £925,001 to £1.5 million | 10% | 15% |
| Over £1.5 million | 12% | 17% |
Non-UK residents pay a further 2% on every band.
First-time buyers
| Part of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £300,000 | 0% |
| £300,001 to £500,000 | 5% |
Only where the price is £500,000 or less. Above that, the standard rates apply to the whole price.
Non-residential and mixed-use property, including land
| Part of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £150,000 | 0% |
| £150,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| Over £250,000 | 5% |
There is no first-time buyer relief, additional property surcharge or non-UK resident surcharge on non-residential property.
Stamp duty at common prices
| Price | Moving home | First-time buyer | Additional home | Non-residential or land |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £500 | £0 | £8,000 | £0 |
| £200,000 | £1,500 | £0 | £11,500 | £1,000 |
| £250,000 | £2,500 | £0 | £15,000 | £2,000 |
| £300,000 | £5,000 | £0 | £20,000 | £4,500 |
| £400,000 | £10,000 | £5,000 | £30,000 | £9,500 |
| £500,000 | £15,000 | £10,000 | £40,000 | £14,500 |
| £750,000 | £27,500 | £27,500 | £65,000 | £27,000 |
| £1,000,000 | £43,750 | £43,750 | £93,750 | £39,500 |
All for UK residents. Add 2% of the price for a non-UK resident buying residential property.
How stamp duty is worked out
Take a £295,000 house bought by someone moving home (the example GOV.UK uses):
- 0% on the first £125,000: £0
- 2% on the next £125,000: £2,500
- 5% on the final £45,000: £2,250
Total: £4,750, an effective rate of 1.6%.
A £275,000 field charged at non-residential rates works out as 0% on the first £150,000, 2% on the next £100,000 (£2,000) and 5% on the final £25,000 (£1,250), so £3,250.
Stamp duty on land
Whether land is residential or non-residential decides which rate table applies, and whether the first-time buyer relief, the 5% additional property surcharge and the 2% non-UK resident surcharge can apply at all. The test is in section 116 of the Finance Act 2003, and HMRC explains how it applies it in its Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual.
Residential property is a building used or suitable for use as a dwelling, land that is part of the garden or grounds of that building, and rights over land that benefit it.
Non-residential property is everything else. GOV.UK lists commercial property such as shops and offices, property that is unfit to live in and cannot be made fit, forests, agricultural land that is part of a working farm or used for agricultural reasons, and any other land or property that is not part of a dwelling’s garden or grounds.
Mixed use is a purchase that includes both, such as a flat over a shop, or a house sold with land that is not part of its garden or grounds. The whole price is charged at non-residential rates.
Building plots
HMRC treats a building being constructed as a dwelling only once building work above the foundations has begun, and says obtaining planning permission on its own does not count. So a bare plot with planning permission for a house is normally non-residential. A £180,000 plot would cost £600 at non-residential rates, against £10,100 if it were charged as an additional residential property.
There is an important exception. Land that is part of the garden or grounds of an existing house is residential property, even when it is sold on its own. A plot carved out of someone’s back garden is usually charged at residential rates, including the 5% surcharge if you already own a home.
HMRC tests the position on the date the purchase completes, so what is on the land that day, and how it is used, is what counts.
Fields, paddocks and farmland
A field or farmland bought on its own is non-residential. Buy a house with a paddock or a few acres, and the question becomes whether that land is part of the house’s garden or grounds. If it is, the whole purchase is residential. If it is not, for example because it is let to a farmer or used for a separate business, the purchase is mixed use.
The difference can be large. A £1.5 million house with land costs £93,750 at residential rates and £64,500 at mixed-use rates, before any additional property surcharge. HMRC checks mixed-use claims closely and has taken disputed cases to tribunal, so get advice from a solicitor or tax adviser before relying on mixed-use rates.
Six or more homes, and properties that cannot be lived in
Buying six or more dwellings in a single transaction is treated as non-residential. A building that is unfit to live in and cannot be made fit is also non-residential, but HMRC sets the bar very high. Its manual (SDLTM00385) says a house needing a new roof, rewiring, flood repairs or work to repairable structural defects is still suitable for use as a dwelling, and the Court of Appeal backed that view in 2025.
First-time buyers
You pay nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% on the part from £300,001 to £500,000. To qualify:
- the price must be £500,000 or less
- everyone buying must be a first-time buyer, meaning they have never owned a home, or a share of one, anywhere in the world
- you must plan to live there as your main home
- the purchase must be residential only (no relief on mixed-use purchases)
A £450,000 first home costs £7,500, against £12,500 at the standard rates.
Second homes, buy-to-let and additional properties
If the purchase means you will own more than one residential property, you usually pay 5% on top of every standard band. This applies to purchases of £40,000 or more. Married couples and civil partners are treated as buying together, so if the higher rates apply to either of you, they apply to the whole purchase.
If you are replacing your main home, the higher rates do not apply as long as you sold your previous main home before completing the new purchase, and within the 3 years before it. If you buy first and sell later, you pay the higher rates at completion and can claim the extra back if you sell your old main home within 3 years of buying the new one. The refund has to be claimed within 12 months of the sale, or of the filing date of the return for the new home if that is later.
Non-UK residents
If you have not been present in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase, you usually pay a 2% surcharge on top of all the other residential rates, including the first-time buyer and additional property rates. If one of the buyers is non-UK resident, the surcharge usually applies to the whole purchase. It does not apply to non-residential property.
Leases
For a new residential lease, stamp duty is charged on any premium at the rates above, and on the rent if its net present value (NPV) over the lease term is more than £125,000, at 1% on the part over £125,000. For a new non-residential lease, rent with an NPV over £150,000 is charged at 1% up to £5 million and 2% above. Buying an existing lease is charged on the price only. The calculator works out the tax on the price or premium; HMRC’s calculator works out the rent.
When you pay, and who sends the return
The SDLT return must reach HMRC, and the tax be paid, within 14 days of completion. Your solicitor or conveyancer usually files the return and pays the tax for you on completion, then adds it to their bill, so you need the money in place before you complete. Late returns and late payment can lead to penalties and interest.
Scotland and Wales
Stamp duty does not apply in Scotland or Wales. Scotland has Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, collected by Revenue Scotland, and Wales has Land Transaction Tax, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority. Both have their own rates and calculators.
What the calculator does not cover
The calculator handles the most common purchases. It does not cover:
- rent on new leases (see leases above)
- companies and other corporate buyers (certain companies pay a flat 17% on homes costing more than £500,000, and companies pay the 5% surcharge on other homes)
- shared ownership purchases
- linked transactions, where you buy more than one property from the same seller, or in connected deals
- reliefs and exemptions other than first-time buyer relief, and the rules for transfers between spouses, on divorce or for no payment
- purchases completing before 1 April 2025, which used different rates
For any of these, use HMRC’s SDLT calculator and speak to your solicitor.
Buying land? Know what you are buying
Stamp duty is one of the first costs that comes up when you buy a plot or a field. The next question is usually what you can do with it. Before you commit to an architect’s design fees, it is worth knowing:
- How big it is. You can get a rough area yourself with our guide to measuring land with a tape or Google Earth.
- What is on it. A topographical survey records the levels, trees, buildings, hard surfaces, drainage covers and boundary features, tied to the Ordnance Survey grid, so your architect can design from it. It shows the walls, fences and hedges on site, but it does not decide where a legal boundary lies.
- What planning constraints apply. Our free planning constraints checker shows listed buildings, conservation areas, flood zones and tree preservation orders for any address in England.
- What the council will want to see. If you plan to build, read what goes into a topographical survey for a planning application, and how much a topographical survey costs.
Sources
All rates and rules on this page come from GOV.UK:
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: non-residential and mixed rates
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: buying an additional residential property
- Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK residents
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: relief for first-time buyers and HMRC manual SDLTM29811
- HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual: residential and non-residential definitions (SDLTM00365), buildings being constructed (SDLTM00400), properties in disrepair (SDLTM00385) and garden or grounds (SDLTM00445)
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: corporate bodies
- Stamp Duty Land Tax overview, including when to pay