The High Value Council Tax Surcharge is not stamp duty

A High Value Council Tax Surcharge on English homes valued above £2m was announced for April 2028, based on 2026 valuations. It is easy to confuse with Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) because both apply to expensive homes — but they're different taxes, charged in different ways, and this calculator only covers one of them.

The key difference

SDLT (and its Scottish and Welsh equivalents, LBTT and LTT) is a one-off transaction tax, paid once, when you buy. The High Value Council Tax Surcharge, as proposed, is an annual charge on properties valued above the threshold — paid every year you own the property, not once at purchase. This calculator computes SDLT, LBTT and LTT only; the surcharge is a different, recurring tax and is deliberately not modelled here.

What's confirmed so far

• Announced for April 2028.
• Based on property valuations carried out in 2026.
• Applies to English homes valued above £2m.
• An annual charge, not a one-off transaction tax.

This is a proposed, forward-dated policy, not yet in force. Verify the details against the current GOV.UK guidance before relying on them — a policy announced for a 2028 start is exactly the kind of thing a later Budget can still change.

See methodology for what this calculator does compute, oruse the live calculator for an SDLT, LBTT or LTT estimate.