Stamp duty calculator for limited company

When a limited company buys a residential property in England or Northern Ireland it pays stamp duty land tax at the standard bands plus the 5 percent surcharge that applies to companies, per HMRC's guidance on corporate bodies, and a further 2 percent if the company is not UK resident. This calculator works the tax from the price you type across the five bands, prints the surcharge and the effective rate as their own lines, and shows beside it what one person buying their only home would pay, because the difference is the cost of holding the property in the company and it is the number the decision turns on.

The bands are cumulative and the surcharge sits on every one

Nothing on the first £125,000, 2 percent on the next £125,000, 5 percent to £925,000, 10 percent to £1.5 million and 12 percent above, and a company pays 5 percent on top of each band, so its rates are 5, 7, 10, 15 and 17 percent. Choose the band the price falls in and the calculator adds the tax on the lower bands in full and the band rate on the balance.

The 17 percent flat rate is a different charge, and most lettings companies are relieved from it

A company buying a residential property for more than £500,000 is charged a flat 17 percent instead of the bands unless a relief applies, and gov.uk lists the reliefs: a property rental business, a developer or trader, property open to the public, a farmhouse and others. The calculator assumes the property is bought for a rental business and works the banded rates; a company buying a home for a director to live in should read the 17 percent rule first.

The extra over an individual is the real price of the structure

On the worked example the company pays the surcharge on the whole price, and the line that matters is the difference between that and what one person buying their only home would pay. Set against the corporation tax treatment of the rent and the mortgage interest, that difference is what the company structure costs on the way in, and it is paid within 14 days of completion whichever way the sum comes out.