Land and buildings transaction tax

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Scottish government is considering introducing LBTT reliefs in respect of Co-ownership Authorised Contractual Schemes (CoACS), Property Authorised Investment Funds (PAIFs) and Reserved Investor Funds (RIFs); a consultation document was published on 11 July 2025. For more information, see Practice Note: Scotland: Land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT)—particular transactions and taxpayers — OEICS (including PAIFs), CoACSs and RIFs.

Background to LBTT

The Scotland Act 1998 (SA 1998) created the Scottish Executive (now known as the Scottish government) and the Scottish Parliament. SA 1998 devolved limited powers over income tax to the new bodies but these powers were never used. The Scotland Act 2012 (SA 2012) amended SA 1998 to give further powers to the Scottish Parliament, including wider powers over taxation. In particular, the Scottish Parliament was given power to legislate for a new tax, to be charged on the acquisition of Scottish land and buildings, which would replace stamp duty land tax (SDLT) in Scotland. In exercise of those powers, the Scottish Parliament passed the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 (

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