UK Stamp Duty Calculator

The formula

• SDLT is marginal: the price is sliced into bands and each slice is taxed at its own rate, total = sum of (slice × band rate)
• Standard bands from 1 April 2025: 0% to £125,000 · 2% £125,001, £250,000 · 5% £250,001, £925,000 · 10% £925,001, £1.5m · 12% above
• First time buyers: 0% to £300,000, 5% £300,001, £500,000; above £500,000 no relief, standard bands apply to the whole price
• Additional dwellings: every band rate + 5 percentage points → 5%, 7%, 10%, 15%, 17% from 1 April 2025
• Effective rate = SDLT due ÷ property price × 100

A worked example

A £350,000 home at the standard rates: nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 (£2,500), 5% on the final £100,000 (£5,000), £7,500 in total. As a first time buyer the same home costs £2,500 (nothing to £300,000, 5% on the £50,000 above it). As an additional dwelling the 5 point surcharge pushes it to £25,000.

More about the UK Stamp Duty Calculator

The tax works in slices, not on the whole price

The single most misunderstood thing about this tax is that the headline rate is not applied to the whole purchase price. Like income tax brackets, the price is divided into layers, and each layer pays only its own rate. That is why a £350,000 purchase at the standard bands costs £7,500 rather than the £17,500 you would get charging 5% on everything: the first £125,000 pays nothing, the next £125,000 pays 2% (£2,500) and only the final £100,000 pays 5% (£5,000).

That's why the calculator shows the per band breakdown. Comparing two homes £25,000 apart? The tax difference is never 5% of £25,000, it's 5% (or 2%, or 10%) of whichever slice that £25,000 lands in. Read the breakdown and you'll see exactly where the expensive slices begin.

Why bills rose on 1 April 2025

For several years buyers enjoyed temporarily generous thresholds: the nil rate band sat at £250,000 and first time buyers paid nothing up to £425,000. On 1 April 2025 those reverted to the figures this page uses, £125,000 for everyone, £300,000 for first time buyers. A standard £300,000 purchase that previously owed nothing now owes £5,000, which is why older estimates and older articles will understate your bill.

If you exchanged contracts before the change but complete after it, transitional rules can apply, and the calculator does not model them. The figures here are the post-April-2025 position, which is the one that matters for any purchase being planned now.

First time buyer relief, exactly as it works

The relief is simple on paper: 0% on the first £300,000 and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000, so a £350,000 first home costs £2,500 instead of £7,500. But the cliff edge is brutal, buy for £500,001 and the relief vanishes entirely, with standard bands applying to the whole price, so a pound over the line can add thousands to the bill. Price your offer with that edge in mind.

To qualify, nobody named on the purchase may ever have owned a residential property anywhere in the world, not a flatshare bought years ago, not an inherited share of a house. If you are buying jointly and one of you has owned before, neither of you gets the relief.

The surcharge on second homes and rentals

Buy an additional residential property worth £40,000 or more, a second home, a holiday let, a buy to let, and every band rate rises by 5 percentage points, from 1 April 2025 giving 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 17%. There is no tax free slice at all: the first £125,000 of an additional dwelling is taxed at 5%, which alone is £6,250.

Look at the gap: the £350,000 additional dwelling figure (£25,000) comes out at more than three times the standard bill (£7,500), the surcharge bites hardest at the bottom of the scale, where a standard buyer pays little or nothing. Run it through your rental yield maths before you make an offer, not after.

England and Northern Ireland only

This tax is called Stamp Duty Land Tax and it covers England and Northern Ireland. Scotland runs its own Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales runs Land Transaction Tax, different bands, different thresholds, different reliefs. A £350,000 purchase in Edinburgh or Cardiff is simply not this calculation, so do not use this page for it.

One more thing the calculator leaves out: non UK residents pay an extra 2% surcharge on top of whatever this page shows. If you are buying from abroad, add that mentally, the FAQ below explains who it catches.

Putting the estimate to work

Use the number the way a conveyancer would: as a line in your completion budget. The tax is due within 14 days of completion, and it sits alongside the deposit, lender fees, survey costs, removals and the first months of the higher bills, most buyers under budget the move by ignoring everything except the deposit. Running two or three candidate prices through the page takes a minute and shows you the true cash needed on the day.

Then sanity check the moving parts the page skips: leasehold premiums and lease extensions are taxed on the premium plus the lease value, shared ownership deals have their own election, and mixed residential commercial property uses different rates. If any of those describe your purchase, take the estimate to your solicitor rather than treating it as the final word.

First time buyer relief: what to know

First time buyers in England and Northern Ireland pay reduced stamp duty up to a threshold, with full rates applying above it. The bands have changed in recent years, so always check the current HMRC rates before budgeting, an outdated threshold can throw your deposit maths off by thousands.

The relief only applies if you have never owned property anywhere in the world and the property will be your main residence. Joint buyers both need to qualify.

Scotland charges LBTT and Wales charges LTT instead of stamp duty, each with its own first time buyer provisions and thresholds.

How to use the UK Stamp Duty Calculator

1. Enter the full purchase price of the property in pounds.
2. Choose your buyer type: standard, first time buyer, or additional dwelling.
3. Press Calculate, you get the total, the effective rate and the per band breakdown.
4. Treat it as a planning estimate for England & NI, not tax advice.