Stamp Duty Across the UK: Same House, Three Very Different Bills
"Stamp duty" is really a single nickname stretched over three separate taxes. England and Northern Ireland kept the original Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). Scotland broke away in 2015, replacing it with Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT). Wales followed in 2018 with its own Land Transaction Tax (LTT). All three work as "slice" taxes — you pay each rate only on the portion of the price that falls inside its band — but the bands themselves, the reliefs on offer and the surcharges on additional homes differ enough to move your bill by thousands.
To see how much difference that makes, we will fix the purchase at a single £300,000 home and view it three ways: through the eyes of a home mover, a first-time buyer, and someone buying an additional property.
The headline: a £300,000 home, three nations
Tax on a £300,000 purchase. For ordinary movers the three nations sit within a few hundred pounds of each other — but Scotland's 8% second-home surcharge makes its additional-property bill far the heaviest.
For a straightforward home mover the three nations land remarkably close together — somewhere between £4,500 and £5,000. All the drama is in the additional-property surcharge. England adds a flat 5% on top of the standard rates and Wales applies higher bands, but Scotland levies 8% on the entire purchase price. That pushes a £300,000 second home to £28,600 — more than £8,000 above the bill anywhere else in the UK.
First-time buyers: where the gap is widest
For first-time buyers the picture splits wide open. England offers comfortably the most generous relief; Wales offers none whatsoever.
First-time buyer's tax on a £300,000 home. England's relief wipes the bill entirely; Scotland gives a smaller break; Wales has no first-time buyer relief, so a first-timer pays the same as a mover.
A first-time buyer's £300,000 home is tax-free in England, £4,000 in Scotland and £4,500 in Wales — for exactly the same property.
The rate bands, side by side
Here is what actually produces those figures. Notice how differently each nation sets its tax-free starting band — and that Wales makes no special provision for first-time buyers at all.
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £125,000 | 0% |
| £125,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £925,000 | 5% |
| £925,001 to £1.5m | 10% |
| Over £1.5m | 12% |
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £145,000 | 0% |
| £145,001 to £250,000 | 2% |
| £250,001 to £325,000 | 5% |
| £325,001 to £750,000 | 10% |
| Over £750,000 | 12% |
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £225,000 | 0% |
| £225,001 to £400,000 | 6% |
| £400,001 to £750,000 | 7.5% |
| £750,001 to £1.5m | 10% |
| Over £1.5m | 12% |
Wales is the outlier. Its high £225,000 nil-rate band means most ordinary buyers pay relatively little, and there is no first-time buyer relief precisely because the starting threshold is already so generous. England takes the opposite approach: a lower £125,000 start, offset by powerful first-time buyer relief — 0% up to £300,000, then 5% up to £500,000.
The full picture on £300,000
| Nation | Home mover | First-time buyer | Additional property |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & NI | £5,000 | £0 | £20,000 |
| Scotland | £4,600 | £4,000 | £28,600 |
| Wales | £4,500 | £4,500 | £19,950 |
Compare all three with the Stamp Duty calculator →
Buying north or west of the border? Go straight to the Scotland LBTT calculator or the Wales LTT calculator.
Three things people get wrong
- "It's all one tax." It isn't. Three governments, three sets of bands, three sets of reliefs. Always run the numbers for the nation you are buying in, not the one you happen to live in.
- The surcharge can catch your main home too. If you haven't completed the sale of your previous home before you buy the next one, the additional-property rates usually apply — though you can often reclaim the surcharge later. On a £300,000 home in Scotland, that is £24,000 of cash you need to find upfront.
- First-time buyer relief has hard limits. Above a price cap — £500,000 in England — the relief disappears entirely, and it is lost the moment anyone in the purchase has ever owned property anywhere in the world.
The bottom line
For an ordinary mover, where you buy barely moves the tax needle. For first-time buyers and second-home buyers it changes everything — a swing of thousands of pounds on an identical property. Budget from the correct nation's rulebook, and remember the surcharge is as much a cash-flow problem as a tax one: it is money you need on completion day, so fold it into your true cost of buying a house. The figures here are illustrative for 2026/27 — confirm the current rates and your own position before you commit.
Common questions
Sources
GOV.UK — Stamp Duty Land Tax (England & NI), Revenue Scotland — Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Welsh Revenue Authority — Land Transaction Tax rates. See our full methodology and rates.
This article is general information for the 2026/27 tax year and not personalised financial advice. Stamp duty rates, bands and reliefs change and depend on your circumstances — verify figures against GOV.UK, Revenue Scotland or the Welsh Revenue Authority, and confirm your own position before making decisions.