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Keep shoppingUK Stamp Duty (SDLT) for Property Investors: The 2026 Guide
15 students
UK Stamp Duty (SDLT) for Property Investors: The 2026 Guide
Master calculations, avoid the 17% corporate trap, and manage the 14-day filing deadline. A practical playbook.
Created byApex Playbooks
Last updated 1/2026
English
What you'll learn
- Calculate SDLT quickly for common investor deals using bands, surcharges, and worked examples.
- Decide if higher rates apply and identify refund opportunities when buying before selling a main home.
- Spot mixed-use vs residential classification risks and collect the facts needed to brief your conveyancer.
- Handle leasehold SDLT basics: premiums, rent NPV, lease extensions, and common filing triggers.
- Avoid major traps: non-resident surcharge, 6+ dwellings rule, company 17% risk flags, and MDR myths.
- Run deal ops confidently: timeline, filing checks, evidence pack, corrections, and escalation triggers.
- Use checklists to document SDLT decisions, reduce errors, and create an audit-ready trail for your files.
- Ask the right questions of solicitors and agents to prevent last-minute SDLT surprises that kill deal economics.
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Course content
10 sections • 46 lectures • 3h 16m total length
Requirements
- No prior tax or property experience required.
- A basic understanding of buying/selling UK property helps.
Description
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
Stop guessing your deal costs. Learn SDLT pricing and red flags—so you don’t lose ROI at completion.
SDLT isn’t just a line item. It’s a deal variable that can break your numbers if you misclassify a property, miss a surcharge, or discover an issue too late.
This course is a practical, investor-focused playbook: worked examples, decision trees, and a step-by-step “deal ops” workflow you can use before you brief your conveyancer.
You’ll learn how to:
Calculate SDLT for residential investor purchases (and understand when rules change for mixed-use/non-residential).
Spot higher-rates and non-resident surcharge triggers early—and identify refund opportunities when buying before selling.
Avoid the 17% corporate cliff-edge on £500k+ deals: when it may apply, and what to check before exchange.
Run a completion-to-filing SOP: deadlines, evidence pack, and correction workflow.
Classify mixed-use and small commercial deals and gather the evidence that supports the position.
You’ll also learn the “sanity-check” method investors use to verify calculator outputs, how to document your assumptions so your conveyancer can act quickly, and how to handle common real-world complications (ownership changes, timing issues, and facts that change after completion).
Includes a downloadable SDLT toolkit (Core Toolkit + templates):
Investor SDLT Cheat Sheet: the key rules and “what changes the bill” shortcuts.
Deal Intake Form: capture the facts your solicitor will ask for before you exchange.
SDLT Calculation Workbook (Excel): compare scenarios and validate costs.
Sanity-Check Checklist: a fast way to catch common calculator and input errors.
Worked Examples Bank: reference scenarios you’ll actually encounter.
Higher-Rates Decision Tree: quickly determine surcharge exposure and refund pathways.
Completion-to-Filing Checklist: a step-by-step workflow to avoid deadline mistakes.
Evidence-Folder Template: organize documents so corrections and audits are painless.
Who this course is for:
- UK property investors (buy-to-let, BRR, HMO, portfolio buyers)
- Anyone supporting investor deals: deal sourcers, agents, transaction coordinators, finance/admin staff, and junior conveyancing support who need practical SDLT decision-making