Do you pay stamp duty when you inherit a property, or transfer one to your spouse?

In England and Northern Ireland the tax is Stamp Duty Land Tax, in Scotland it is Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, and in Wales it is Land Transaction Tax. The rules are similar on inherited property and gifts, but the name of the tax matters because each nation has its own legislation.

Do you pay stamp duty when you inherit a house?

You do not pay stamp duty when you inherit a house through a will or intestacy, whether it is your first home, a second property, or a probate property, because inheritance itself is exempt from SDLT in England and Northern Ireland, LBTT in Scotland, and LTT in Wales. For SDLT, the Finance Act 2003 says: “The acquisition of property by a person in or towards satisfaction of his entitlement under or in relation to the will of a deceased person, or on the intestacy of a deceased person, is exempt from charge.” Scotland and Wales use matching wording for LBTT and LTT. That means the Stamp Duty Land Tax position on a property inherited through probate is normally that you owe nothing at all on the inheritance transfer. The key limit is consideration: the SDLT exemption is lost if the beneficiary gives anything for the property, other than assuming secured debt, because the statute says the exemption “does not apply if the person acquiring the property gives any consideration for it, other than the assumption of secured debt.”

Do you pay stamp duty on a partly inherited property, or on buying out the other beneficiaries?

Holding a partly inherited property share triggers no SDLT, LBTT or LTT by itself, but buying out the other beneficiaries can trigger the tax on the price paid for their share, not on the whole property value. HMRC’s SDLT manual states: “This exemption however does not apply where the beneficiary gives consideration other than the assumption of secured debt or the acceptance of an obligation to pay Inheritance Tax.” In practical terms, stamp duty on a partially inherited property changes once you pay cash to co-beneficiaries: if three siblings inherit a £450,000 house equally and one pays the other two £300,000 for their shares, the chargeable consideration is the £300,000 buy-out, not £450,000. For the higher-rates surcharge, England and Northern Ireland disregard an inherited share of 50% or less for three years when calculating your next purchase; Scotland does not have that carve-out, and Revenue Scotland says: “However, inherited dwellings will count towards dwellings owned by a buyer for the purposes of the ADS.”

How do you avoid stamp duty on a probate property?

You avoid stamp duty on a probate property only by keeping the transfer within the inheritance exemption: a no-consideration assent, a debt-only assumption where allowed, or a qualifying deed of variation within two years of death with no outside cash. For SDLT, the Finance Act 2003 exempts no-consideration land transactions and separately protects certain variations if “no consideration in money or money's worth other than the making of a variation of another such disposition is given for it.” There is no special probate-property relief that removes SDLT from a cash buy-out of another beneficiary’s share; once a beneficiary pays money for land, the transaction is no longer just the inheritance being satisfied. Practitioners sometimes deal with this before the beneficiaries take shares, by having the executor appropriate the property to one beneficiary while that beneficiary pays money into the estate, but that is a conveyancing and tax-structuring point for the solicitor handling the estate, not a general stamp-duty escape route after the beneficiaries have already acquired and traded shares between themselves.

Do you pay stamp duty when you transfer a property to your spouse?

Marriage is not a blanket exemption: a transfer to a spouse or civil partner is tax-free only if there is no consideration, such as a pure gift, while an assumed mortgage counts as consideration and can trigger SDLT, LBTT or LTT; only the 3% SDLT surcharge is waived for cohabiting spouses and civil partners, not the base tax. HMRC says for England and Northern Ireland: “You pay Stamp Duty Land Tax if the chargeable consideration given in exchange for the share transfer is more than the current Stamp Duty Land Tax threshold for the property type,” and also says: “If the transfer is a gift and there's no chargeable consideration, Stamp Duty Land Tax does not normally apply.” The same logic applies under Scotland’s LBTT and Wales’s LTT for no-consideration gifts. For SDLT, the spouse carve-out is narrower than many conveyancing summaries suggest: HMRC’s manual says that from 22 November 2017 the higher-rates rules disregard transactions solely between spouses or civil partners while living together, which removes the surcharge but leaves ordinary SDLT to be tested against the consideration.

What is Stamp Duty Land Tax?

Stamp Duty Land Tax is the transaction tax charged on land transactions in England and Northern Ireland, while Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Wales charges Land Transaction Tax instead. The Finance Act 2003 states: “A tax (to be known as ‘stamp duty land tax’) shall be charged in accordance with this Part on land transactions.” GOV.UK summarises the current territorial position more plainly: “You must pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) if you buy a property or land over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.” In everyday speech, people still say stamp duty for all three systems, but that shorthand can mislead: SDLT, LBTT and LTT have similar inheritance and gift rules, yet different rates, surcharge rules and administrative systems. For inherited houses and spouse transfers, the first question is therefore not just whether stamp duty applies, but which nation’s land transaction tax is being tested.

Why does Stamp Duty Land Tax exist?

Stamp Duty Land Tax exists because the UK replaced the old document-based stamp duty with a transaction-based land tax from 1 December 2003, so the tax could apply to land transactions rather than only to stamped documents. HMRC’s SDLT manual says: “SDLT was introduced in Part 4 of the Finance Act 2003 to replace the former stamp duty (SD).” The structural weakness of the old system was that stamp duty was a tax on documents; as the Law Society Gazette put it, “Stamp duty is a tax on documents - where there is no document there is no stamp duty.” SDLT was therefore designed to tax the land transaction itself, which made avoidance through document form much harder. The reform was aimed mainly at closing revenue leakage in property transactions, especially commercial schemes, not at probate transfers or ordinary family gifts; those still sit inside specific exemptions where the legislation says no charge arises.

Last reviewed August 2026.

Sources

• Finance Act 2003 Sch 3 para 3A(1) — “The acquisition of property by a person in or towards satisfaction of his entitlement under or in relation to the will of a deceased person, or on the intestacy of a deceased person, is exempt from charge.” Source
• Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 Sch 1 para 6(1) — “The acquisition of property by a person in or towards satisfaction of the person's entitlement under or in relation to the will of a deceased person, or on the intestacy of a deceased person, is an exempt transaction.” Source
• Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 Sch 3 para 5(1) — “The acquisition of property by a person in or towards satisfaction of the person's entitlement under or in relation to the will of a deceased person, or on the intestacy of a deceased person, is exempt from charge.” Source
• Finance Act 2003 Sch 3 para 3A(2) — “Sub-paragraph (1) does not apply if the person acquiring the property gives any consideration for it, other than the assumption of secured debt.” Source
• HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual SDLTM00570 — “This exemption however does not apply where the beneficiary gives consideration other than the assumption of secured debt or the acceptance of an obligation to pay Inheritance Tax.” Source
• Property Tax Partners, SDLT on probate property transfers — “One sibling buys the other two out for £150,000 each (£300,000 total).” Source
• Finance Act 2003 Sch 4ZA para 16(2) — “P is not to be treated for the purposes of paragraph 3(4)(a) or 6(1)(e) as having the major interest at any time during the period of three years beginning with the date of the inheritance.” Source
• Revenue Scotland ADS guidance — “However, inherited dwellings will count towards dwellings owned by a buyer for the purposes of the ADS.” Source
• Finance Act 2003 Sch 3 para 4(2)(b) — “(b)that no consideration in money or money's worth other than the making of a variation of another such disposition is given for it.” Source
• Finance Act 2003 Sch 3 para 1 — “A land transaction is exempt from charge if there is no chargeable consideration for the transaction.” Source
• Trusts Discussion Forum, SDLT on inherited property — “The executor could appropriate the property to the beneficiary, subject to that beneficiary paying in monies to "reduce" their net benefit to the amount to which they are entitled from the estate.” Source
• Trusts Discussion Forum, SDLT on inherited property — “If the executor appropriated the property to the beneficiaries in equal shares, leaving it for them to organise matters between themselves, the transaction would be treated as a sale between the beneficiaries and be subject to CGT and SDLT accordingly.” Source
• GOV.UK, SDLT: transferring ownership of land or property — “You pay Stamp Duty Land Tax if the chargeable consideration given in exchange for the share transfer is more than the current Stamp Duty Land Tax threshold for the property type.” Source
• GOV.UK, SDLT: transferring ownership of land or property — “If the transfer is a gift and there's no chargeable consideration, Stamp Duty Land Tax does not normally apply.” Source
• HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual SDLTM09820 — “From 22 November 2017, the higher rates rules disregard transactions solely involving the transfer of interests between spouses or civil partners while they are treated as living together on the date of purchase.” Source
• Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 Sch 1 — “1SA land transaction is an exempt transaction if there is no chargeable consideration for the transaction.” Source
• GOV.WALES, Land transactions — “Land or buildings may be gifted or the ownership transferred to another person for no 'chargeable consideration'.” Source
• Finance Act 2003 s.42 — “A tax (to be known as "stamp duty land tax") shall be charged in accordance with this Part on land transactions.” Source
• GOV.UK, Stamp Duty Land Tax — “You must pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) if you buy a property or land over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.” Source
• HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax Manual SDLTM00030 — “SDLT was introduced in Part 4 of the Finance Act 2003 to replace the former stamp duty (SD).” Source
• Law Society Gazette, Discovering a fresh stamp-ing ground — “Stamp duty is a tax on documents - where there is no document there is no stamp duty.” Source