General description

From 1 April 2018, LTT replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on residential and non-residential property and land interests purchased in Wales. The tax rates and tax bands for LTT vary depending on the type of transaction.

Taxpayers must notify the WRA of all land transactions with a value above £40,000. There are also circumstances where certain lease transactions are not notifiable if they are less than 7 years in duration. When filing an LTT return, the organisation paying the return has 30 days after the effective date to submit and pay the return.

This dataset includes estimates of LTT notifiable transactions received by the WRA by the close of 21 October 2024.

Care should be taken with any comparisons over time which involve data from spring 2020 to summer 2021. This is due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and changes to LTT rates. A national lockdown on 23 March 2020 resulted in the housing market being mainly closed from this date until 22 June 2020 when it partially re-opened. The market was re-opened more fully on 27 July, to coincide with a change in LTT rates effective until 30 June 2021. There is evidence some purchasers may have brought their transactions forward to June 2021 to benefit from the temporary tax reduction.

There were some changes to LTT rates effective from 22 December 2020. Non-residential transactions and higher rates residential transactions were affected.

The main residential rates and bands for Land Transaction changed for transactions effective after 10 October 2022.

The dataset focuses on the transactions subject to a relief only and includes a breakdown by:
- relief type: the four main categories of relief plus an ‘other’ category making up the rest
- transaction type: residential, non-residential
- transaction description: conveyance / transfer of ownership, granting a new lease, assignment of lease
- impact on tax due: yes, no
- measure: number of transactions, estimates of the value of tax relieved due, and the tax due on the transactions
- effective quarter and year

Reliefs can be claimed on both residential and non-residential properties. Reliefs reduce the amount of tax due when certain conditions are met. Multiple reliefs can be applied to a single transaction and reliefs may reduce the tax due to zero (known as a full relief) or by a certain percentage or amount (known as a partial relief).

Previously, we excluded linked and relieved transactions from this dataset. This was so that we could carry out further analysis on these transactions. We have now carried out this analysis and have a reasonable level of confidence in the quality of these data. We have now added linked and relieved transactions into this dataset, revising all data back to April 2018. This has added around 60 to 70 relieved transactions each quarter, and an average of £4 million to £5 million each quarter in reliefs.

Reliefs are sometimes claimed where they have no impact on the tax due. These can be viewed separately in this dataset and many of them have been reported unnecessarily by the organisations completing the tax returns. As an example, some of these apply to low value residential transactions. Indications are that they are due to a perceived but mistaken need to claim first time buyer relief (which applies for the predecessor tax, but not to Land Transaction Tax). This is known following queries raised with several agents asking why tax reliefs have been claimed where there is no impact on value of the tax. Further information about this category of reliefs is provided in the example 4 in the key quality information found in the weblinks.

That example also describes some adjustments that have been made to more correctly identify the value of tax relieved associated with these transactions. Further adjustments are expected in future, and so the numbers shown here for reliefs where there is no impact on tax due are likely to be revised in future.

Data collection and calculation

See weblinks

Frequency of publication

Quarterly

Data reference periods

Data are shown by the financial quarter (quarter 1 is April to June) and financial year (April to March) in which the transaction was effective. Where part years are shown, these are marked with the suffix "to date."

Users, uses and context

These statistics have been established to meet the immediate user requirement for data on the implementation of LTT, following the establishment of the WRA. Our key users are colleagues from the Welsh Treasury within the Welsh Government, the Office of Budget Responsibility, and other tax authorities in the UK.

Rounding applied

Values in this dataset are rounded to the nearest 10 transactions, and the nearest £0.1 million for tax relieved and tax due.

Revisions information

Land Transaction Tax statistics are regularly revised and the values for the latest period are provisional. When filing a LTT return, the organisation paying the return has 30 days after the ‘effective date’ to submit and pay the return. The effective date is when the tax becomes liable to be paid, usually when a transaction is completed on a property. Additional LTT transactions relating to the most recent month are therefore likely to be filed during the following month. See weblinks for analysis of these revisions.

Values for earlier periods are subject to revisions for several years. Transactions can be amended for a variety of reasons and the statistics are revised each month to reflect amendments to transactions. In particular, this will be due to higher rate refunds. When a refund for higher rates residential LTT is claimed, the original transaction is amended to a main rate residential LTT transaction. The taxpayer has up to three years to sell their previous main residence and claim a refund.

Title

Land Transaction Tax statistics, by relief type, transaction type, impact on tax, measure and effective year and quarter

Last update

31 October 2024 31 October 2024

Next update

30 January 2025

Publishing organisation

Welsh Revenue Authority

Source 1

Land Transaction Tax returns, Welsh Revenue Authority

Contact email

data@wra.gov.wales

Designation

None

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Wales

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Statistical quality

See weblinks

Weblinks

https://gov.wales/land-transaction-tax-statistics
https://gov.wales/quality-information-land-transaction-tax-statistics
https://gov.wales/funding/fiscal-reform/welsh-taxes/land-transaction-tax

Keywords

Land Transaction Tax; LTT; Tax

Name

WRAx0005

Dataset

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=WRAX0005.zip

Metadata

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=WRAX0005.xml

Dimensions

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=WRAX0005_dimensions.csv

Items

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=WRAX0005_dimensionitems.csv