Stamp duty calculator.

In slices, not as one rate on the whole price. Each portion of the purchase price falling inside a band is charged at that band's rate and the slices are added together — so a £300,000 purchase pays nothing on the first £125,000, 2% on the next £125,000 and 5% on the last £50,000. That is why the effective rate shown is always lower than the top band you land in, and why a purchase just over a band threshold costs only slightly more than one just under it rather than jumping dramatically.

Additional properties carry a 5-percentage-point surcharge on top of the standard bands, so the slices run 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 17% instead of 0%, 2%, 5%, 10% and 12%. The surcharge applies from the first pound, which is why a second property costs noticeably more than the same purchase as a main home. It catches more people than expected: it applies if you own any interest in another dwelling anywhere in the world, including an inherited share, unless you are replacing your main residence.

First-time buyer relief charges nothing on the first £300,000 and 5% on the portion between £300,000 and £500,000. Above a £500,000 purchase price the relief is not available at all and standard rates apply to the whole purchase — a cliff edge rather than a taper, so a £505,000 purchase is materially more expensive than a £499,000 one. All purchasers must be first-time buyers: if one of two joint buyers has owned a property before, including abroad or through an inheritance, the relief is lost entirely.

SDLT is triggered by completion, not by exchange or by your mortgage offer, and HMRC sets a short deadline after completion for both the return and the payment. In practice your conveyancer files the return and pays HMRC as part of completing, so the money has to be with them beforehand — which means it needs to be in your deposit calculation from the start, not found afterwards. A return is required even where no tax is due in some cases, so do not assume a nil liability means nothing to file.

Yes, if you were replacing your main residence and sold the previous one within three years of the new purchase. You claim the refund from HMRC, generally within twelve months of the sale of the old home or twelve months of the filing date for the new purchase, whichever is later. This is a genuinely common overpayment: people buy before they sell, pay the surcharge, complete the sale months later and never reclaim it. Diarise the deadline at the point you pay the surcharge, because nobody will remind you.

No. Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax, each with their own bands, rates and first-time buyer treatment. This calculator covers residential property in England and Northern Ireland only, and applying it to a Scottish or Welsh purchase will give you the wrong number, sometimes by thousands. Check the relevant devolved authority's own calculator for those, and note that the rules diverge on more than just the rates — the thresholds and the surcharge treatment differ too.

Treat it as an estimate for general guidance. Mixed-use and non-residential property, purchases by companies, linked transactions, multiple dwellings, properties with an annexe, and the various reliefs are all treated differently and none of them are covered here. Purchases by a company over £500,000 can attract a 17% flat rate unless a relief applies, which is a very different number from the one shown. Talk to Buzz — or at least to your conveyancer — before relying on this figure for a real purchase.