Stamp duty calculator
What the purchase actually costs in tax, band by band, for England and Northern Ireland.
| Band | Rate | Taxed on | Tax |
|---|
Stamp duty is charged in slices, not on the whole price
This is the part almost everyone gets wrong. Crossing a threshold does not re-rate the entire purchase. Each slice of the price is taxed at its own rate, the same way income tax works, so buying at £250,001 rather than £250,000 costs you five pence, not five thousand pounds.
The standard bands run 0% to £125,000, then 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5 million, and 12% above that. The table above shows exactly which slice produced which part of your bill.
The two things that change the answer
First-time buyer relief lifts the nil band to £300,000 and charges 5% between £300,000 and £500,000. Unlike the bands themselves it is a cliff rather than a slope: above £500,000 the relief vanishes entirely and the standard rates apply to the whole price. Every buyer on the purchase must qualify.
The additional property surcharge adds 5 percentage points to every band, including the nil band, if the purchase leaves you owning more than one property. It applies from £40,000 upward and it catches more people than expected: a buy-to-let, a holiday home, a share of an inherited property, or simply buying before your old house has sold.
Budget for it separately
Stamp duty cannot be added to the mortgage. It is cash, due within 14 days of completion, on top of the deposit and the legal fees. On a £325,000 purchase for a mover it is £6,250, and on the same purchase as an additional property it is £22,500. That gap is usually the difference between a plan that works and one that does not.
Common questions
- Does this cover Scotland and Wales?
- No. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax. They are separate taxes with their own bands, so this calculator applies to England and Northern Ireland only.
- Am I still a first-time buyer if my partner has owned before?
- No. Every buyer named on the purchase must be a first-time buyer. If one of you has owned a property anywhere in the world, the relief is lost on the whole purchase.
- Why does buying at £500,001 cost so much more than £500,000?
- First-time buyer relief is withdrawn completely above £500,000 rather than tapering. One pound over the line moves the whole purchase onto the standard rates, which costs about £5,000. It is worth negotiating hard around that figure.
- I am buying a second home but selling my old one. Do I pay the surcharge?
- If the sale completes first, no. If you end up owning both, you pay the 5% surcharge and can reclaim it if you sell the previous main residence within three years.
- When is the tax due?
- Within 14 days of completion. In practice your solicitor files the return and pays it from the funds you send them, so it needs to be in your budget alongside the deposit.