Land Transaction Tax

Land Trans­ac­tion Tax (LTT) is payable by the pur­chas­er of prop­er­ty in Wales.

Who pays the tax?

LTT is payable by the pur­chas­er of res­i­den­tial or non-res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty in a land trans­ac­tion occur­ring in Wales. Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is payable on land trans­ac­tions in Eng­land and North­ern Ire­land and Land and Build­ings Trans­ac­tion Tax (LBTT) on land trans­ac­tions in Scot­land.

What is a land transaction?

A trans­ac­tion will trig­ger lia­bil­i­ty to LTT if it involves the acqui­si­tion of an inter­est in land. This will include a sim­ple con­veyance of land, such as buy­ing a house, cre­at­ing a lease or assign­ing a lease.

LTT is oper­at­ed by the Welsh Rev­enue Author­i­ty (WRA), and indi­vid­u­als who are liable to the tax must com­plete and sub­mit an LTT return (see lat­er).

When is the tax payable?

Indi­vid­u­als must send an LTT return and pay the tax due to the WRA with­in 30 days of the day after com­ple­tion (or oth­er effec­tive date of the trans­ac­tion). Penal­ties and inter­est may be charged if you fail to file your LTT return or pay the nec­es­sary tax with­in the 30 days after the day of com­ple­tion.

In some cir­cum­stances, the trans­ac­tion is not noti­fi­able and the acquir­er is not required to send a LTT return or pay LTT. These include both exempt trans­ac­tions and excep­tions:

• no mon­ey has exchanged hands (exempt)
• a prop­er­ty is left to you and you are not required to make a pay­ment for the trans­fer of the prop­er­ty (exempt)
• prop­er­ty own­er­ship is trans­ferred to you as a result of a divorce or the dis­so­lu­tion of a civ­il part­ner­ship (exempt)
• free­hold prop­er­ty has been pur­chased for less than £40,000 (excep­tion)
• a new or assigned lease of sev­en years or more is pur­chased, and the pre­mi­um is less than £40,000 and the annu­al rent is less than £1,000 (excep­tion)
• a lease assign­ment or sur­ren­der, where the orig­i­nal term was:
  • less than sev­en years and the amount you pay is less than the res­i­den­tial or non-res­i­den­tial LTT zero rate thresh­old.
  • more than sev­en years and the amount you pay is less than £40,000 (excep­tions).

What if my property straddles the England-Wales border?

For cross-bor­der cas­es, a home buy­er will only be required to pay SDLT on the Eng­lish part of the trans­ac­tion and LTT to the WRA for the Welsh part of the trans­ac­tion.

LTT rates

Non-res­i­den­tial rates have been applic­a­ble since 22 Decem­ber 2020:

The res­i­den­tial rates have applied from 10 Octo­ber 2022:

The high­er rates for the pur­chase of a sec­ond or sub­se­quent res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty or res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties pur­chased by com­pa­nies/non-nat­ur­al per­sons which have been increased by 1% from 11 Decem­ber 2024 are:

The high­er rates for the pur­chase of a sec­ond or sub­se­quent res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty or res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties pur­chased by com­pa­nies/non-nat­ur­al per­sons that applied from 22 Decem­ber 2022 to 10 Decem­ber 2024 were:

First-time buyers

Unlike SDLT and LBTT, LTT does not pro­vide any relief for first-time home­buy­ers in Wales.