LTT is a separate tax
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:
- Below the nil rate band entirely£0
LTTnothing
A return is still required.
- Nothing on the first £225,000£0
- 6% on £75,000£4,500
LTT£4,500
- 6% on £175,000£10,500
- 7.5% on £100,000£7,500
LTT£18,000
The catch sits at the bottom of the market. 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 use a separate table
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% |
- 5% on the first £180,000£9,000
- 8.5% on £20,000£1,700
LTT£10,700
The identical property bought as your only home pays nothing.
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. 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.
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.
