How much stamp duty is there to pay on a house (or other property) worth £400,000?
If you are thinking of buying a property worth £400,000 then you may be looking to check how much stamp duty you would have to pay on the purchase of that property.
In order to work out how much stamp duty there is to pay for a particular house purchase, you need to separate tranches of the purchase price that are charged at different rates, which can be complicated, and add those amounts together.
However, if you use our stamp duty calculator which makes it much more simple, you will see that the figure works out at £7,500 if the purchase is a first property or the replacement of your main residence (updated September 2022).
If the house purchase is a second property for one or both of the purchasers, then you may well be liable for the higher rate of tax on the purchase which will add 3% to the figure. In this case you may have to pay £19,500. The additional £12,000 is worked out as 3% of the total purchase price.
Therefore it is worth checking with your solicitor as to whether you need to pay the higher amount if you are in any doubt at all.
Stamp duty can form a large chunk of cash that you need to spend on a property purchase, particularly for higher value properties, which, added to a deposit and the various fees that you need to pay, can mean that saving for a home becomes very difficult. Of course if you are already on the property ladder then paying stamp duty to move house can eat into any equity you may have gained with your previous property and you will still need to find the money out of your cash reserves (unless you are downsizing).
When you are looking at paying this much in stamp duty just to move house it may be the case that you start considering the option of extending your current property if that is feasible. It can be a fine line between the cost of moving and the benefits of extending.
Other Factors
If you are a first time buyer then you may be entitled to a reduced rate of stamp duty on your property purchase – you can find details of that here.