EM0990 - Determine who can support the enquiry: Stamp Duty Land Tax: The Role Of Stamp Duty Land Tax

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a tax on land transactions and full details of the tax can be found on the Stamps Office intranet site.

The administration of the tax is based on the Self Assessment tax system as are the compliance procedures.

The compliance team is based in Birmingham. SDLT enquiries includes

• checking land transactions returns
• checking purchaser amendments to returns.

An SDLT enquiry can range from a simple enquiry into one land transaction return to a detailed examination of a number of land transaction returns made by the same purchaser.

The team will deal with information you may have about potential SDLT evasion or avoidance and can provide SDLT information that may assist you in a HMRC enquiry you are conducting. Requests or information should be sent to

Birmingham Stamp Office

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Transactions involving SDLT have to be reported within 30 days of the date they take affect. This means that Stamp Office receives transactions information relatively early compared to Self Assessment Tax.

The tax is a liability of the purchaser not the vendor and SDLT legislation places a clear responsibility on the purchaser to assess their own liability.

Note: The rapid growth in personal Let to Buy investment portfolios, often as a vehicle for retirement savings, means that SDLT is a significant part of annual expenditure for some customers.