Wales guide

Land Transaction Tax in Wales: rates, bands and the higher-rate trap

Wales charges Land Transaction Tax, not stamp duty. For an ordinary home it is often the cheapest property tax in the UK. For a second property it is one of the most expensive, because the higher rates replace the table rather than adding to it.

LTT is a different tax, not a Welsh stamp duty

Stamp Duty Land Tax stopped applying in Wales on 1 April 2018. Since then Welsh property purchases have been taxed under Land Transaction Tax, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority rather than HMRC, with its own bands, its own reliefs and its own return.

It is progressive in the same way — each rate applies only to the slice of price inside its band — but the thresholds are set independently and they are not close to the English ones. An English stamp duty calculator will give a Welsh buyer the wrong number, and on a second property it will be wrong by a great deal.

Main residential rates

Band	Purchase price	Rate
Nil rate	Up to £225,000	0%
First band	£225,001 – £400,000	6%
Second band	£400,001 – £750,000	7.5%
Third band	£750,001 – £1,500,000	10%
Top band	Over £1,500,000	12%

The £225,000 nil rate band is the highest property transaction tax threshold anywhere in the UK, which makes LTT genuinely cheap on a large share of ordinary Welsh house purchases. Two worked examples:

Worked examples

£220,000 home. Below the nil rate band entirely. LTT is nothing — though a return is still required.

£300,000 home. Nothing on the first £225,000, then 6% on £75,000. LTT is £4,500.

£500,000 home. 6% on £175,000 = £10,500, then 7.5% on £100,000 = £7,500. LTT is £18,000.

The catch sits at the bottom of the market rather than the top. Wales has no first-time buyer relief at all. England and Scotland both have one. A Welsh first-time buyer at £300,000 pays the same £4,500 as anybody else. The high nil rate band is the compensation, and below £225,000 it is a good deal; between £225,000 and the English first-time buyer threshold it is not.

Additional properties: a separate table, not a surcharge

This is the structural difference worth understanding properly, because it is unlike either neighbour. England adds a percentage on top of the main rates. Scotland charges a flat 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on the whole price. Wales throws the table away and uses a different one, and the replacement has no nil rate band at all.

Band	Purchase price	Rate
First band	Up to £180,000	5%
Second band	£180,001 – £250,000	8.5%
Third band	£250,001 – £400,000	10%
Fourth band	£400,001 – £750,000	12.5%
Fifth band	£750,001 – £1,500,000	15%
Top band	Over £1,500,000	17%

What that does to a modest buy-to-let

£200,000 rental property. 5% on the first £180,000 = £9,000, then 8.5% on £20,000 = £1,700. LTT is £10,700.

The identical property bought as your only home pays nothing. That is a £10,700 swing decided entirely by whether you already own a property.

These rates took effect for transactions on or after 11 December 2024. The higher rates apply where you already own a residential property anywhere in the world, and to purchases by companies. On a portfolio of any size the entry cost compounds quickly, so it belongs in the model before an offer goes in rather than as a surprise from the solicitor. Our advisory service runs that comparison.

Commercial and mixed-use property

Band	Purchase price	Rate
Nil rate	Up to £225,000	0%
First band	£225,001 – £250,000	1%
Second band	£250,001 – £1,000,000	5%
Top band	Over £1,000,000	6%

A £400,000 commercial unit pays nothing on the first £225,000, 1% on the next £25,000 and 5% on the remaining £150,000 — £7,750 in total. Mixed-use property, such as a shop with a flat above it, is treated as non-residential, which is very often the cheaper outcome and is worth establishing before the purchase is structured rather than after.

Leases are taxed on the net present value of the rent over the term rather than on a price, and carry their own notification requirements.

Deadlines, and who is responsible

An LTT return must reach the Welsh Revenue Authority, with the tax paid, within 30 days of the day after completion.

A return is required even where no tax is due, unless a specific exception applies. That trips people up on purchases below the £225,000 nil rate band, where it is easy to assume that nothing owed means nothing to file.

In practice your solicitor files it as part of the conveyancing, but the legal responsibility sits with the buyer. The returns that get missed are rarely the house purchases — they are lease notifications and the further returns that fall due when a linked transaction completes later.

Rates and bands: Welsh Government, Land Transaction Tax rates and bands. Returns and deadlines: GOV.WALES, Land Transaction Tax returns and payments. Checked 24 August 2026.

See what else changes at the border in our Wales overview, or the Welsh business rates guide if the property is commercial.

Common questions

Questions we get asked

Is Land Transaction Tax the same as stamp duty?

No. Stamp Duty Land Tax stopped applying in Wales on 1 April 2018 and was replaced by Land Transaction Tax, a separate devolved tax with its own bands and reliefs, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority rather than HMRC. The nil rate band runs to £225,000, the highest property tax threshold in the UK, and the rates above it are 6%, 7.5%, 10% and 12%. An English stamp duty calculator will give a Welsh buyer the wrong figure, and on an additional property it will be wrong by thousands.

Is there first-time buyer relief in Wales?

No, and this genuinely surprises people who have moved from England. Wales has no first-time buyer relief of any kind, where both England and Scotland do. The Welsh Government's position has been that the £225,000 nil rate band, the highest in the UK, does the same job more simply by helping every buyer at the lower end rather than one category of buyer. Below £225,000 a Welsh first-time buyer pays nothing, which is a good outcome. Above it they pay exactly what a second-time mover pays.

What will I pay on a buy-to-let in Wales?

Considerably more than in England or Scotland on a modest property, because the higher residential rates replace the main table rather than adding to it, and they have no nil rate band. The first band is 5% from the very first pound, running to £180,000, then 8.5% to £250,000, 10% to £400,000, 12.5% to £750,000, 15% to £1.5m and 17% above that. A £200,000 rental property therefore carries £10,700 of LTT, where the same property bought as your only home would pay nothing at all.

Do companies pay the higher rates?

Yes. Purchases of residential property by companies fall within the higher residential rates, in the same way that individuals buying an additional dwelling do. That means a company buying its first Welsh rental flat at £200,000 faces the same £10,700 as an individual who already owns a home. It is a real entry cost and it is paid in cash at completion, so it belongs in any comparison of holding property personally against holding it through a company, alongside the Corporation Tax and mortgage interest arguments that run UK-wide.

When does the return have to be filed?

Within 30 days of the day after completion, with the tax paid in the same window. The part that catches people is that a return is required even when no tax is due, unless a specific exception applies — so a purchase below the £225,000 nil rate band still needs filing. Your solicitor will normally handle it as part of the conveyancing, but the legal responsibility is yours as the buyer. Lease notifications and further returns on linked transactions are the ones most often missed, because nothing arrives to remind you.

Wales guides

The parts that genuinely change at the border

Three guides, because there are three real differences. Corporation Tax, VAT, National Insurance, Companies House and the whole legal framework are identical to England. We would rather write three good guides than pad the list out to five.

Wales guide