A landlord or second-home buyer completing on a £1,000,000 property in Scotland currently pays £158,350 in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), including the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS). A buyer completing on the same price in England pays £93,750 in Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) — a gap of £64,600. Converted into the one recurring bill every UK homeowner already recognises, that single gap is worth 26.8 years of the average English council tax bill (£2,410.97 for 2026-27, gov.uk).
Why Scotland's additional-property tax runs higher
England and Wales both add a flat 5% surcharge on top of standard rates when a buyer will own more than one residential property at the end of the transaction — a second home, a holiday let, or a rental purchase (HMRC; Welsh Revenue Authority). Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement, set by Revenue Scotland, adds 8% instead. Like its England/Wales equivalent, the supplement applies to the whole purchase price from the first pound — there's no separate nil-rate band for the surcharge itself, only for the standard LBTT or SDLT charge underneath it.
Three percentage points doesn't look dramatic on a rate card. Multiplied across a six- or seven-figure purchase price, it compounds into a five-figure cash difference — and that's before translating it into a unit most buyers actually recognise: years of council tax.
How the two totals are built
Scotland's standard LBTT bands run 0% to £145,000, 2% on the slice to £250,000, 5% to £325,000, 10% to £750,000, and 12% above that. England's standard SDLT bands (non-first-time-buyer) run 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5m, and 12% above. Scotland's top band arrives a full £750,000 earlier than England's — and the 8% ADS stacks on top of whichever standard band applies, just as England and Wales's 5% surcharge stacks on top of theirs.
The gap, price by price
| Purchase price | England SDLT (5% surcharge) | Scotland LBTT (8% ADS) | Cash gap | Years of average council tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £8,000 | £12,100 | £4,100 | 1.7 years |
| £200,000 | £11,500 | £17,100 | £5,600 | 2.3 years |
| £250,000 | £15,000 | £22,100 | £7,100 | 2.9 years |
| £300,000 | £20,000 | £28,600 | £8,600 | 3.6 years |
| £350,000 | £25,000 | £36,350 | £11,350 | 4.7 years |
| £400,000 | £30,000 | £45,350 | £15,350 | 6.4 years |
| £500,000 | £40,000 | £63,350 | £23,350 | 9.7 years |
| £750,000 | £65,000 | £108,350 | £43,350 | 18.0 years |
| £1,000,000 | £93,750 | £158,350 | £64,600 | 26.8 years |
Figures calculated via Homecost's stamp duty calculator at 2026 rates, additional-property surcharge applied throughout, non-first-time-buyer. "Years" converts each cash gap into multiples of the average English Band D council tax bill for 2026-27 (£2,410.97 across 296 billing authorities, gov.uk) — see the caveat below. Fetched 2026-09-10.
Why the gap accelerates rather than climbing in a straight line
The cash gap more than triples between £500,000 and £1,000,000, even though the price only doubles. Two things move together at the top of the ladder: Scotland's standard LBTT reaches its top 12% band at £750,001, a much lower price than England's 12% band at £1.5m, and the 8% ADS is calculated on the whole, larger price. Both effects point the same way above the low hundreds of thousands, which is why the years-of-council-tax figure accelerates fastest at the top of the table, not the bottom.
A caveat worth stating plainly
This comparison converts a Scotland-England tax gap into a familiar unit — years of council tax — using the average English Band D bill, because the council tax data behind it covers England's 296 billing authorities only. Scotland sets its own council tax bands under separate legislation, administered by its own 32 local authorities, and typical Scottish bills are not part of this calculation. The "years" figure is a yardstick for the size of the LBTT/SDLT gap in everyday terms — it is not a claim about what council tax actually costs in Scotland.
Who this applies to
The Additional Dwelling Supplement and its England/Wales equivalent apply whenever a buyer will own more than one residential property at completion. That covers buy-to-let purchases, but also second homes, holiday lets bought outright, and some inherited-property situations where a previous main home hasn't yet been sold. It is not limited to professional landlords. Both regimes also allow a refund in defined circumstances — for example, where a previous main residence is sold within the qualifying window after the new purchase completes.
Try it on your own numbers
Homecost's stamp duty calculator runs Scotland's ADS and the England/Wales surcharge side by side for any price. For a sense of what a home well inside the £300,000 standard SDLT threshold looks like in practice, a typical Hull property's True Cost breakdown shows the mortgage, council tax and energy components separately.
This piece extends Scotland vs England vs Wales: The Landlord Stamp Duty Gap in 2026 and applies the years-of-council-tax framing first introduced in How Many Years of Council Tax Equal Your Stamp Duty? to the additional-property case. For the full rate tables behind all three UK property tax regimes, see SDLT vs LBTT vs LTT: the three UK property taxes compared. More breakdowns like this are in Cost Intelligence on the Homecost blog.
Every figure above comes from Homecost's own stamp duty calculator run against 2026 rates, cross-checked against gov.uk's 2026-27 council tax statistics for England's 296 billing authorities, fetched 2026-09-10.
This is general information, not advice. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances — speak to a qualified adviser before acting.