Stamp Duty Land Tax is charged in slices, like income tax, so the rate you hear quoted is never the rate you pay on the whole price. Which slices apply depends on whether you are a first-time buyer, a mover, or buying a property that will not be your only one. The figures below are for England and Northern Ireland and come from our stamp duty calculator; Scotland (LBTT) and Wales (LTT) use different bands.
The bands since April 2025
For a buyer replacing their main home, the standard slices are:
- 0% on the first £125,000
- 2% on £125,001 to £250,000
- 5% on £250,001 to £925,000
- 10% on £925,001 to £1.5 million
- 12% above £1.5 million
First-time buyers get relief instead: 0% on the first £300,000 and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000. Above £500,000 the relief disappears entirely and the standard bands apply to the whole price, which creates the cliff edge discussed below.
Anyone buying an additional property, whether a second home or a buy-to-let, pays the standard bands plus a 5% surcharge on the entire price.
Six prices, three buyers
| Purchase price | Mover | First-time buyer | Additional property |
|---|---|---|---|
| £250,000 | £2,500 | £0 | £15,000 |
| £300,000 | £5,000 | £0 | £20,000 |
| £400,000 | £10,000 | £5,000 | £30,000 |
| £500,000 | £15,000 | £10,000 | £40,000 |
| £650,000 | £22,500 | £22,500 | £55,000 |
| £925,000 | £36,250 | £36,250 | £82,500 |
Read the £300,000 row across: nothing for a first-time buyer, £5,000 for a mover, £20,000 for a landlord. Same house, same day, a £20,000 spread.
The £500,000 cliff edge
First-time buyer relief does not taper. At £500,000 a first-time buyer pays £10,000, which is £5,000 less than a mover. At £500,001 the relief is gone and the bill is the standard £15,000, on the whole price. One extra pound of purchase price costs £5,000 in tax.
If a property you want is priced just over £500,000, that is a negotiation point worth raising. Sellers rarely know the exact line, and a £2,000 price cut that brings you under it saves you £5,000.
Where the mover's bill comes from
Take £400,000. The first £125,000 is tax-free. The next £125,000 (up to £250,000) is taxed at 2%, which is £2,500. The remaining £150,000 (£250,001 to £400,000) is taxed at 5%, which is £7,500. Total: £10,000, an effective rate of 2.5% even though the top slice was taxed at 5%. The calculator shows this effective rate for any price so you can compare it with the headline band.
The additional-property surcharge
The 5% surcharge applies to the full price, not just a slice, and it applies even if the second property is cheap. At £250,000, where a mover pays £2,500, an additional-property buyer pays £2,500 plus £12,500, or £15,000. It also catches people who have not sold their previous home by completion day; if you sell within three years you can reclaim the surcharge, but you must fund it up front.
Timing and the cash you need
Stamp duty is due within 14 days of completion and cannot be added to most mortgages, so it comes out of the same pot as the deposit. On a £400,000 first home with a 10% deposit, the £5,000 tax is an eighth again on top of the £40,000 you were already saving. Price it early: our UK take-home pay calculator shows what a given salary leaves each month, which is the number that determines how long that saving takes.