Buying or selling your home
Tax
You may need to pay:
- Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) when you buy a home in England and Northern Ireland
- Land Transaction Tax when you buy a home in Wales
- Capital Gains Tax when you sell a home
Stamp Duty Land Tax
You pay SDLT if the property is worth £250,000 or more.
You still have to pay if you swap something of economic value for a property, for example shares or another property.
If you’re buying your first home
You do not have to pay SDLT if the property is £425,000 or less.
Capital Gains Tax
You do not pay Capital Gains Tax when you sell (or ‘dispose of’) your home if all of the following apply:
- you’ve lived in it as your main home for all the time you’ve owned it
- you have not let part of it out or used part of it for business only
- the grounds, including the buildings, are smaller than 5,000 square metres (just over an acre)
This is because you automatically get a tax relief called Private Residence Relief. You do not need to do anything.
If you do not meet all these criteria you may have to pay some Capital Gains Tax.