Stamp duty calculator
Enter the price, pick your buyer type, and see the SDLT band by band, the whole bill, the effective rate, and what the purchase truly costs.
Guide
How to use it
- Enter the purchase price.
- Pick the buyer type: moving home (standard rates), first-time buyer (relief below £500,000) or additional property (5% surcharge on every band).
- Read the band table, each rate applies only to the slice of price inside its band.
- Budget the price-plus-duty figure: SDLT is due within 14 days of completion, usually handled by your conveyancer.
Examples
Three buyers, one price
Standard rates: nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000, 5% on the last £35,000, £4,250 in total, an effective rate of just 1.5%.
First-time buyer relief covers the lot: £285,000 sits under the £300,000 nil band, so the duty is zero. The relief is worth up to £11,250 at its maximum.
The surcharge adds 5% to every band: £4,250 becomes £18,500. Buy-to-let arithmetic starts with this line, not the rental yield.
Method
How it works
SDLT is banded like income tax: each rate taxes only its slice, so the table simply walks the price through the 2025-26 bands (0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5m, 12% above), with first-time relief or the additional-property surcharge applied per the selection.
The bands live in this page as one editable constant, flagged for review at every Budget, and the tool says so on its face: rates change, gov.uk is the authority, and this is arithmetic, not tax advice.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
When is stamp duty paid?
Within 14 days of completion. In practice your conveyancer files the return and takes the money at completion, budget it as part of the cash needed on the day.
Does Scotland or Wales use these rates?
No. Scotland charges LBTT and Wales LTT, different bands and different reliefs. This calculator is England and Northern Ireland only.
What counts as a first-time buyer?
Never owned property anywhere in the world, ever, and every joint buyer must qualify. Inherited a share of a house once? The relief is gone.
I am replacing my main home but keeping a flat, surcharge?
Replacing your main residence avoids the surcharge even if you own other property, but buying before selling triggers it, reclaimable if you sell the old home within three years.
Is stamp duty ever negotiable?
The tax is not, but the price allocation can matter at band edges: paying separately for genuinely removable fixtures is legitimate, disguising price as "curtains" is evasion, and HMRC has seen the trick.
Can I add stamp duty to the mortgage?
Only by borrowing more against the property, which needs the loan-to-value headroom. Cheaper to save it: duty paid from cash costs its face value, duty borrowed costs interest for decades.
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