Land and buildings transaction tax

STOP PRESS: The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Group Relief and Sub-sale Development Relief Modifications) (Scotland) Order 2025, SSI 2025/158, which took effect on 2 June 2025, made changes to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 (LBTT(S)A 2013) to: (i) extend LBTT group relief to transfers in advance of non-partition demergers (by amending LBTT(S)A 2013, Sch 10 Pt 2, para 7), and (ii) provide that, for sub-sale development relief, the five-year period in which a significant development involving the construction or redevelopment of buildings must take place starts on the effective date of the qualifying sub-sale (by amending LBTT(S)A 2013, Sch 10A Pt 2, para 4).

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Scottish government will consult on (i) a review of LBTT, commencing in spring 2025, to support an evaluation of key aspects of the tax legislation, (ii) draft legislation to provide relief from LBTT on the exchange of units within Co-ownership Authorised Contractual Schemes (CoACS) investing in Scottish property (to provide consistency with existing arrangements in the rest of the UK), and (iii) whether

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