What ADS adds at each price
The Additional Dwelling Supplement is charged on top of ordinary LBTT when a buyer ends up owning more than one dwelling. The table puts the same purchase through both, so the supplement shows up as a number rather than a percentage to apply yourself.
| Purchase price | LBTT only | LBTT plus ADS | ADS |
|---|---|---|---|
| £150,000 | £100 | £12,100 | £12,000 |
| £200,000 | £1,100 | £17,100 | £16,000 |
| £250,000 | £2,100 | £22,100 | £20,000 |
| £350,000 | £8,350 | £36,350 | £28,000 |
The last column is exactly 8% of the purchase price every time. That is the part that surprises people: ADS is not banded. Scotland leaves the LBTT bands alone and charges 8% of the whole price as a single figure on top, so at these prices the supplement runs to several times the tax it sits on.
8% of the whole price, for transactions on or after 5 December 2024
revenue.scot puts it plainly: for transactions on or after 5 December 2024 the ADS is 8% of the purchase price. It was 6% for transactions on or after 16 December 2022. There are no bands and no threshold above which the rate changes, so on a £250,000 second home the supplement is £20,000 on top of £2,100 of banded LBTT.
England, Northern Ireland and Wales do it differently. SDLT adds 5 percentage points to each standard band, and Wales uses a separate higher-rate band table. Neither is a flat percentage of everything paid. Stamp duty on a second home sets the three nations side by side.
When ADS applies
revenue.scot says ADS is usually payable when:
- you buy a residential property in Scotland and already own one or more residential properties anywhere in the world
- where there are two or more buyers, any one of them already owns one or more residential properties anywhere in the world
- you are not replacing or selling your only or main residence
Two further rules change the answer in common cases. For transactions with an effective date from 1 April 2024, a share in a jointly owned property only counts if that individual share is worth £40,000 or more. And companies are treated differently from individuals: ADS applies to most purchases of residential property in Scotland by non-natural persons, such as corporate bodies, companies and certain trusts, even where they own no other residential property. A company buying its first Scottish rental does not get the one-dwelling let-off an individual would. Additional Dwelling Supplement on revenue.scot.
The £40,000 floor is a cliff edge
ADS does not apply where the amount payable for the property being purchased is less than £40,000. That is a floor, not an allowance: at £40,000 the supplement is charged on the whole £40,000, not on the part above the floor.
| Purchase price | LBTT only | LBTT plus ADS | ADS |
|---|---|---|---|
| £39,999 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £40,000 | £0 | £3,200 | £3,200 |
One pound more on the price adds £3,200 to the bill. The calculator applies the floor, so with the additional-property setting on, anything below £40,000 comes back at the standard rates with no supplement.
Getting ADS back when you replace your main home
Buying the new home before the old one sells means paying ADS up front and claiming it back later. The supplement is repayable where the previous main residence is sold within 36 months of buying the new one, and both properties were occupied as the only or main residence. The 36-month window applies to transactions with an effective date on or after 1 April 2024; before that it was 18 months. A sale that completes outside the window gets nothing back: revenue.scot says there are no provisions giving Revenue Scotland power to consider exceptional circumstances.
There are two routes to the money, and which one applies depends on timing. Inside the statutory 12-month amendment period, the original LBTT return is amended. Once that has passed, it becomes a claim for repayment of overpaid tax, which has to be made within 5 years of the return due date.
What this page leaves out
Every figure here is for a purchase by an individual. The rules above say a company pays ADS on a first Scottish property where an individual would not; the calculator has a company setting for that, but it is off on this page, and the limited company calculator is set up for it. Trust purchases are not modelled at all, and neither is multiple dwellings relief, which changes the ADS basis to the average consideration.
For the ordinary Scottish purchase without a supplement, including first-time buyer relief and the rate bands, use the LBTT calculator or read the full LBTT guide.