Stamp duty ― basic rules

Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
Produced by Tolley in association with Sean Randall
Corporation Tax
Guidance

Stamp duty ― basic rules

Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
Produced by Tolley in association with Sean Randall
Corporation Tax
Guidance
imgtext

Introduction and scope

Stamp duty is a tax on documents and has existed for over 300 years. During the latter part of the 20th century, and in particular following the introduction of stamp duty land tax (SDLT), the scope of stamp duty has been narrowed significantly.

The documents which are now within the scope of stamp duty are broadly confined to:

  1. •

    instruments relating to stock or marketable securities

  2. •

    instruments transferring an interest in a partnership, the assets of which include stock or marketable securities

  3. •

    instruments which transfer UK land and buildings where the contract was entered into before 10 July 2003 and which are not within the SDLT regime

In practice, by far the most common circumstance where stamp duty is encountered is on stock transfer forms for the purchase of unquoted shares in UK registered companies.

The stamp duty statute is spread over many years, the most important legislation being the Stamp Act 1891 and FA 1999, Sch 13.

HMRC manual references are to the Stamp Taxes on Shares

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Sean Randall
Sean Randall linkedinicon twittericon

Partner at Blick Rothenberg , Corporate Tax

20 years’ “Big Four” stamp duty experience, including building and running KPMG’s UK stamp duty team for five years Chair of the professional body for stamp duty advisers, the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group (over 200 members) Editor and author of Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes since 2008 Former Tax Writer of the Year Author of the Law Society’s SDLT Handbook: A Guide for Residential Conveyancers Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Barrister (non-practising) Listed in Spear’s 500

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