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Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on a buy-to-let or second home in England and Northern Ireland is the standard residential band schedule plus an additional-property surcharge introduced by Finance Act 2016. The surcharge rate increased from 3% to 5% on 31 October 2024 — affecting any completion from that date onwards — and remains at 5% for 2026. Scotland and Wales operate separate regimes (LBTT and LTT respectively) with similar but not identical surcharge structures; this calculator covers England and NI only.

The 2026 residential bands are: 0% on the first £125,000, 2% from £125,001 to £250,000, 5% from £250,001 to £925,000, 10% from £925,001 to £1,500,000 and 12% above £1,500,000. The additional-property surcharge of 5% is added flat across every band, including the previously zero-rated first £125,000. So a £220,000 buy-to-let pays £7,400 of standard SDLT plus £11,000 of surcharge — £18,400 total. The surcharge alone is materially larger than the standard SDLT for properties under £300k.

Non-UK-resident buyers pay an additional 2% surcharge on top of everything else under the Finance Act 2021 changes — introduced 1 April 2021 and unchanged since. A non-resident buying a £220k buy-to-let pays £7,400 standard + £11,000 additional-property + £4,400 non-resident = £22,800 total. Residence is tested using the Statutory Residence Test for the year ending on the date of completion; a UK passport holder living abroad for over 183 of the previous 365 days is non-resident for SDLT purposes regardless of citizenship.

The £40,000 de minimis is a frequent confusion. The additional-property surcharge does not apply to purchases below £40,000 — but the threshold is the entire purchase price, not the slice above a band. A purchase at £41,000 pays surcharge on the full £41,000, not just the £1,000 over the threshold. Below £40,000 the surcharge is zero (and standard SDLT is also zero because the price is under the £125k starter band). Above £40,000 the full surcharge applies on the whole price.

The first-time-buyer relief that gives 0% SDLT up to £300,000 (and 5% on the slice from £300,001 to £500,000 with no relief above) does NOT apply to buy-to-let purchases. First-time-buyer relief is conditional on the buyer intending to occupy the property as their only or main residence. A buy-to-let from day one is excluded — the relief is for owner-occupiers only.

Two reliefs that historically reduced BTL SDLT have been narrowed or abolished. Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR), which let you average the price across multiple dwellings in a single transaction (useful for buying two flats together), was abolished from 1 June 2024 — contracts substantially performed before that date can still claim MDR if they completed before 1 June 2025. Mixed-use relief (commercial-rate SDLT for a property with any commercial element) survives in narrow circumstances — an HMRC challenge culture has tightened the test materially since 2020 and a typical residential flat with a small ground-floor shop is now routinely refused mixed-use status. Take SDLT advice from a specialist conveyancer, not a generic high-street firm, on any structure that depends on relief.