How stamp duty thresholds and bands actually work
Every UK property transaction tax is banded, which means each rate applies only to the portion of the price that falls inside that band. Crossing a threshold never re-prices the parts of the purchase below it.
The slice rule
Think of the purchase price as being cut into slices at each band boundary. The first slice is taxed at the first rate, the next slice at the next rate, and so on. Only the money sitting inside a band is charged at that band's rate. A purchase reaching into the third band is not taxed at the third rate throughout: the lower slices keep their own, lower rates. This is why the total tax as a share of the price is always lower than the top rate reached, and why the average rate climbs gradually as the price rises.
What changed in 2014
The old system worked on slabs. A single rate was picked according to the price and charged on the entire amount, so crossing a threshold by a single pound could re-rate the whole purchase and add a large sum to the bill. That produced hard distortions around each boundary, with prices bunching just underneath and nothing selling just above. The UK moved to the banded system in 2014, and the devolved taxes that followed were built as banded taxes from the start. The distortion the slab system created at every threshold is why none of the three regimes uses it now.
Reading a band table
A band table lists a price range and the rate applied to the money inside it. The first row is normally the nil-rate band, where no tax is charged: £125,000 in England and Northern Ireland, £145,000 in Scotland and £225,000 in Wales. Because those figures differ, the same purchase can be tax-free in one nation and taxable in another. The bands above the first are not comparable between regimes either, so reading across two tables row by row will not tell you which nation is cheaper at a given price. Only the completed calculation does that.
The exceptions that are not sliced
Two mechanisms on this site break the slice rule and are worth knowing before you rely on a mental estimate. Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement is charged as a flat proportion of the entire purchase price rather than band by band, so it behaves like the old slab system. Separately, some rules are switches rather than bands: first-time buyer relief in England and Northern Ireland disappears completely above a price cap, and the additional-property surcharges only start applying once the price reaches a minimum figure, at which point they apply to the whole purchase. Those are thresholds, not bands.
Key points
- Each rate applies only to the slice of the price inside its band, never to the whole price.
- The slab system, where one rate hit the entire price, was abolished in 2014.
- Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement is the exception: it is charged on the whole price.
Common questions
Does a higher price mean my whole purchase is taxed at the higher rate?
No. Only the portion of the price inside each band is charged at that band's rate. The slices below keep their own rates, however high the price goes.
Is the nil-rate band a tax-free allowance for every buyer?
On the standard tables, yes. The additional-property tables charge from the first pound once the purchase is in scope, so a second-home buyer gets no tax-free slice.
Which nation has the highest starting threshold?
Wales, at £225,000 on the main residential rates. That higher threshold stands in place of the first-time buyer relief that Wales does not offer.
Work out your own figure
SDLT on a £300,000 property in England & Northern Ireland. That is an effective rate of 1.7%.
Written by StampBand Editorial, published by Inventum. Rates verified 9 August 2026 against HM Revenue & Customs, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority.