Stamp Duty Land Tax: transfer ownership of land or property in England and Northern Ireland

The SDLT nil rate band in England and Northern Ireland is £250,000 (as of 23 September 2022). This will remain in place until 31 March 2025. 

How much SDLT you pay depends on what is called the chargeable consideration.

The chargeable consideration is the price paid for the property including any fixtures and fittings. This might involve a cash payment, taking on liability for all or part of the outstanding mortgage or a combination of both.

However, it can include anything of monetary value, such as offering to pay legal fees or transferring other assets, like land or other properties, as part of the deal.

The following are examples of when SDLT might be due when transferring or gifting land or property in England and Northern Ireland.

If this is a second property, or a buy-to-let, then you will pay an additional 3% on all the relevant bands if it’s worth more than £40,000.

If you do need to pay SDLT, then you will usually still need to complete an SDLT return unless the transaction is exempt – for example this might be because no money or other payment has changed hands.

A transfer of equity means a change in legal ownership of a property. It will often take place where a borrower is added to or released from a mortgage. How much SDLT you pay will depend on the circumstances of the property transfer.

Joint owners (including unmarried couples) might agree to transfer the ownership of a property they own together to just one of them. For example, an unmarried couple who are splitting up with one taking sole ownership may need to pay SDLT on the total chargeable consideration.

For example, a house is valued at £200,000 with £100,000 outstanding on the mortgage and £100,000 in equity.

The person taking ownership:

• pays the other £50,000 for the other half of the £100,000 equity that is left in the property and
• becomes responsible for the other half of the remaining mortgage, which is £50,000 (assuming the property is owned in equal shares).

This gives a chargeable consideration of £100,000.

Where an individual has taken ownership of equity in a property which has a mortgage, Stamp Duty will usually be payable if the chargeable consideration is above the current threshold of £250,000. In this situation the person taking ownership would have to pay no SDLT.

The owner of a property worth £700,000, with an outstanding mortgage of £600,000, gets married.

They transfer half of the property to their partner, who takes on responsibility for half of the mortgage.

The person receiving the transfer has a chargeable consideration of £300,000, which is over the SDLT threshold.

The new owner will have an SDLT liability of £2,500 (0% of £250,000 and 5% of £50,000). 

If joint owners split a property unequally and the person with the larger share compensates the other, this compensation might be liable for SDLT, if it’s above the £250,000 threshold.

For example, a two-floor house is split into two apartments, but the ground floor apartment has sole-access to the garden. Because of this, the ground floor flat is worth more and the owner of this part of the property financially compensates the other.

If this compensation is above £250,000 the person being compensated will have to pay SDLT on the amount over the threshold and submit an SDLT return

However, if the owner decides not to compensate the other, or it’s given as a gift, there is no consideration and no SDLT to pay.

If the transfer is a gift and there’s no consideration, SDLT doesn’t normally apply.

A gift is different from a transfer as there is no transfer of monetary value. This means the person receiving the property pays no cash for their share, takes on no liability for the mortgage and offers no asset in exchange, so there is no chargeable consideration.

For example, a homeowner gets married, enters a civil partnership or moves in with their partner and decides to transfer half of the property to their partner. If the partner does not pay anything in cash for this and does not take on legal liability for any outstanding mortgage, then this is a gift and is not subject to SDLT.

If you inherit land or property under the terms of a will, there’s no need to tell HMRC and you won’t normally have to pay SDLT provided no other consideration has been given. This applies even if you take on an outstanding mortgage on the property on the date the person died.

You won’t normally have to pay SDLT if you transfer an interest in land or property to your partner as part of an agreement or court order because you’re either:

• divorcing
• dissolving a civil partnership.

This also applies if the partners either:

• annul their marriage
• legally separate.

In these cases, you don’t need to tell HMRC about the transfer, even if the value is more than the SDLT threshold.

If joint owners are unmarried and not in a civil partnership when they transfer an interest in land or property from one joint owner to another then you might have to pay SDLT.

If two or more people own a property jointly, either as joint tenants or tenants in common and ownership is divided equally, then SDLT is not normally payable.

Where a property transfer results in unequal ownership or one person takes over ownership of the entire property and pays cash or some other form of consideration in exchange which is over the current SDLT threshold then tax may be payable.