Stamp Duty Guide

If you’re buying a home in Slough or anywhere else in England, there’s a good chance Stamp Duty will be part of your costs. In short: it’s a tax charged in bands on the property price, starting at 0% up to £125,000 and rising to 12% above £1.5 million. First-time buyers get a better deal, paying nothing up to £300,000 on homes worth £500,000 or less. Buying a second home or a buy-to-let adds a 5% surcharge on top of the standard rates, and non-UK residents pay a further 2% on top of whatever else applies. If you’ve paid the second-home surcharge but go on to sell your previous main residence within 3 years, you can usually claim it back. You’ve got 14 days from completion to pay, though your solicitor almost always handles this for you. There are also situations where nothing’s owed at all, inheriting under a will, receiving a genuine gift, or transferring property as part of a divorce settlement, each covered in detail below.

What Is Stamp Duty?

Stamp Duty Land Tax, usually just called Stamp Duty or SDLT, is a tax you pay to HMRC when you buy property or land in England over a certain price. It applies whether you’re buying a freehold, a leasehold, or a share of a home through a scheme like Shared Ownership.

You only pay it once, as part of the buying process, and it’s based on the price you’re paying, or sometimes the value of whatever you’re giving in exchange for the property, which HMRC calls the “consideration.” For most buyers that’s simply the purchase price, but it can include things like taking on someone else’s mortgage debt too.

How Much Is Stamp Duty?

Stamp Duty isn’t one flat rate on the whole price. It’s worked out in bands, so you pay nothing on the first slice of the price, then increasing rates on each portion above that.

Property Price	Stamp Duty Rate
Up to £125,000	0%
£125,001 – £250,000	2%
£250,001 – £925,000	5%
£925,001 – £1,500,000	10%
Over £1,500,000	12%

Worked example: £350,000 property = £0 + £2,500 + £5,000 = £7,500 total

Stamp Duty Relief for First-Time Buyers

If this is your first home, you get a better deal. You won’t pay any Stamp Duty on the first £300,000, as long as the property costs £500,000 or less overall. Go over that £500,000 mark and the relief disappears entirely, so you’d pay the standard rates on the whole price instead.

Property Price	First-Time Buyer Rate
Up to £300,000	0%
£300,001 – £500,000	5% on the portion above £300,000
Over £500,000	Standard rates apply to full value

Worked example: £350,000 property, first-time buyer = £0 + £2,500 = £2,500 total

To count as a first-time buyer here, you need to have never owned residential property anywhere in the world, and that includes anything you’ve inherited, even a small share. Our First-Time Buyer’s Guide covers this definition properly, since it trips up more people than you’d expect.

Stamp Duty on Second Homes

If buying this property means you’ll end up owning more than one, you’ll usually pay an extra 5% surcharge on top of the standard rates, whether that’s a second home, a buy-to-let, or anything else.

Property Price	Additional Property Rate
Up to £125,000	5%
£125,001 – £250,000	7%
£250,001 – £925,000	10%
£925,001 – £1,500,000	15%
Over £1,500,000	17%

Worked example: £300,000 second home = £20,000 total

There’s an important exception if you’re actually replacing your main home rather than adding a second property. As long as you sell your old main residence within 36 months (3 years) of completing on the new one, the surcharge doesn’t apply, or if you’ve already paid it, you can claim it back (more on that below). Our Buy-to-Let Mortgage Slough page has more if you’re financing an additional property specifically.

Stamp Duty for Non-Residents

If you weren’t in the UK for at least 183 days in the 12 months before your purchase, you count as a non-UK resident for Stamp Duty purposes, and you’ll pay an extra 2% surcharge on top. This applies whatever else you’re paying, whether that’s the standard rate, the first-time buyer rate, or the additional-property rate, so it stacks on top rather than replacing anything.

Refund of Higher Rates of Stamp Duty

If you paid the second-home surcharge because you owned two properties at once, you don’t necessarily have to keep paying for it. As long as you sell your previous main residence within 3 years of buying the new one, you can claim the surcharge back.

The deadline for the claim itself is whichever comes later: 12 months from the date you sold your previous home, or 12 months from the date you filed the SDLT return on your new one. In practice, this means some refund claims can be made nearly 3 years after the original purchase, depending on when the sale of the old home actually happens. If something genuinely outside your control stopped you selling within the 3-year window, HMRC does allow exceptions, but these are assessed case by case.

How Long Do You Have to Pay Stamp Duty?

You have 14 days from the date you complete on the property to pay what you owe. That’s not a lot of time, which is why it’s usually handled for you rather than something you need to chase up yourself.

How to Pay Stamp Duty

If you’re using a solicitor or conveyancer, and almost everyone buying a home is, they’ll normally file your Stamp Duty return and pay HMRC on your behalf as part of completing the purchase, then add the cost to their bill. It’s one less thing for you to think about on the day.

If for some reason nobody’s doing this for you, you can file the return and pay HMRC directly yourself. Just keep that 14-day deadline in mind either way, since HMRC can charge penalties and interest if the return and payment don’t arrive in time.

When Is Stamp Duty Not Payable?

There are a few situations where you genuinely don’t owe any Stamp Duty at all:

• The property’s below the threshold. If you’re not a first-time buyer, you won’t pay anything on a property under £125,000. First-time buyers get a bigger buffer, nothing up to £300,000.
• You’ve inherited it under a will. You don’t pay Stamp Duty on property left to you in someone’s will, and you don’t even need to tell HMRC about it. This holds even if you take on an outstanding mortgage that was on the property when the person died, as long as nothing else changes hands.
• You’ve received it as a genuine gift. If someone gives you a property with no strings attached and no outstanding mortgage on it, there’s no Stamp Duty to pay. If there is a mortgage still on it and you’re taking that on, it’s treated differently, since taking on someone else’s mortgage debt counts as consideration.
• It’s part of a divorce or dissolution settlement. Property transferred between spouses or civil partners under a court order, or under a formal separation agreement, as part of divorce or dissolution proceedings, is exempt from Stamp Duty.

Stamp Duty When Transferring a Property

Outside of a straightforward purchase, Stamp Duty can still apply any time property or land is transferred to you and you give something of value in return, what HMRC calls chargeable consideration. This comes up more often than people expect, since it’s not only about handing over cash.

The most common example is transferring a share of a property to a spouse or partner. If you don’t pay them anything and there’s no mortgage involved, there’s usually nothing to pay. But if there’s an existing mortgage and the other person takes on a share of that debt as part of the transfer, Stamp Duty is due on the value of the mortgage debt they’re taking on, if that value is over the relevant threshold. The same principle applies to transfers between other joint owners, family members, or when dividing up ownership after a relationship ends outside of a formal divorce.

Because the rules shift depending on exactly who’s involved and what’s changing hands, it’s worth getting this checked properly rather than assuming a transfer is automatically exempt just because no cash is involved.

Want your exact figure confirmed as part of your mortgage advice? Talk to our Slough team. Book a Consultation → Visit our First-Time Buyer Mortgages Slough page to get started.