A buyer who completes on a new main home before selling their old one pays a 5-percentage-point surcharge on the whole price — in England under Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), in Wales under Land Transaction Tax (LTT). Sell the previous home within the window and both tax authorities refund it in full. Run the same purchase price through both systems and the cash figure comes back identical to the pound. What differs, sometimes sharply, is how you get it back.
The same surcharge, verified two ways
Both regimes apply the higher rate as a flat 5 percentage points added to every band of the standard schedule, including the slice below each nation's nil-rate threshold. That means the refund — the difference between what was paid at the higher rate and what the standard rate would have been — works out to exactly 5% of the purchase price, in both England and Wales, at every price point:
| Purchase price | England refund (SDLT) | Wales refund (LTT) |
|---|---|---|
| £180,000 | £9,000 | £9,000 |
| £225,000 | £11,250 | £11,250 |
| £250,000 | £12,500 | £12,500 |
| £300,000 | £15,000 | £15,000 |
| £400,000 | £20,000 | £20,000 |
| £500,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 |
| £750,000 | £37,500 | £37,500 |
Figures from Homecost's stamp duty and Land Transaction Tax calculators, calculated as the difference between the additional-property and standard-rate totals at current 2026 rates, fetched 6 September 2026.
The identical outcome isn't a coincidence of these particular numbers — it falls out of both regimes charging the surcharge as a flat percentage of the whole consideration rather than banding it. A £300,000 home mover gets back £15,000 whether the sale is in Cardiff or Croydon. The one place the amounts genuinely diverge is above England's £925,000 standard-rate band, where SDLT's own rate curve steepens; LTT has no equivalent band at that level, so above roughly £925,000 the standard-rate bill (and therefore the total charged, though not the surcharge itself) starts to differ between the two.
Where the process splits
The equal maths stops at the tax calculation. Everything about claiming the money back runs on separate rules.
Who administers it. England's claim goes through HMRC's dedicated online repayment service. Wales's goes through the Welsh Revenue Authority's (WRA) own online form. Neither authority processes the other nation's claims, and a move that crosses the border — old home in one nation, new home in the other — means dealing with two separate systems for the two separate transactions.
The deadline to claim. This is the sharpest difference. HMRC requires the claim within 12 months of whichever is later: the completion date of the sale of the previous main residence, or the filing date of the SDLT return on the new home (HMRC SDLT manual, SDLTM09807). Missing that 12-month window is, by HMRC's own account, the most common reason English claims fail. WRA's published guidance, by contrast, sets out only the three-year window to sell the old home — it does not publish a separate claim-submission deadline once that sale has completed. Anyone relying on that reading should still check WRA's current technical guidance before assuming there is no time pressure at all, since guidance can be updated.
The window to sell. Both nations give the same length of time to dispose of the previous home: 36 months in England, three years in Wales — the same duration, just expressed differently. WRA notes a longer period can apply in specific circumstances, such as fire safety defects preventing a sale; HMRC's equivalent extensions are handled case by case through its own guidance rather than a published list of named exceptions.
The evidence required. Both services ask for a transaction reference number from the original return (a UTRN in both systems — Wales's is a specific 12-digit format), the address of the old home, and bank details for the repayment. WRA is explicit about what it will not accept as proof of sale: an unsigned transfer form, a transfer form for the new home instead of the old one, or an LTT certificate on its own. It wants a signed and dated TR1 or TP1 transfer form, or a contract of sale. HMRC's service asks for broadly equivalent completion evidence alongside the buyer's date of birth and National Insurance number.
How long it takes. WRA publishes an explicit turnaround: 15 to 20 working days for a complete application. HMRC's repayment service guidance does not publish an equivalent fixed turnaround time for the higher-rates claim.
A worked comparison
Two buyers each complete on a £300,000 main home while still owning their previous one — one in Newport, one in Norwich. Both pay a surcharge of £15,000 on top of their standard-rate tax at completion. Both sell their old home ten months later, comfortably inside either country's window. The Norwich buyer has 12 months from whichever is later of that sale or their original filing date to submit the HMRC claim, using the completion evidence HMRC specifies, and has no published guarantee of processing time. The Newport buyer submits through WRA's online form with a signed TR1, and can expect a decision within roughly three to four weeks — but should not assume an open-ended claim window without checking current guidance. Same £15,000. Different clock, different form, different evidence checklist.
Try it yourself
Homecost's Land Transaction Tax calculator runs the standard-rate and higher-rate figures side by side for any Welsh price, and the equivalent stamp duty breakdown is available for English and Scottish comparisons. For the full mechanics of each claim process individually, see Homecost's guides to claiming back Wales's higher Land Transaction Tax rate and amending an SDLT return and claiming a higher-rate refund, which also covers the most common reasons English claims are refused. For background on the surcharge itself, see the additional-property stamp duty surcharge explainer. More UK property cost guides are on the Homecost blog.
Based on Homecost's analysis of 782,603 Land Registry residential transactions across England (742,328) and Wales (40,226) in 2025, and the published claims processes of HMRC and the Welsh Revenue Authority.
This is general information about how two separate refund processes work, not advice on your own claim. The specific facts of a sale — joint ownership, evidence gaps, extensions to the selling window — can change the outcome. Speak to a qualified conveyancer or tax adviser before submitting a claim.