Official Statistics

Methodology Quality Report Annual UK Stamp Tax statistics - January 2024

Updated 31 January 2024

1. Contacts

• Organisation unit – Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence (KAI)

• Name – C Sharry

• Function – Statistics producer, Indirect Taxes

• Mail address – HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

• Email – [email protected]

2. About this release

This methodology and quality report relates to the Annual UK Stamp Taxes statistics publication and Quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax statistics publication. These reports present statistics on receipts and transactions for stamp taxes including Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), Stamp Duty Reserve Tax (SDRT) and Stamp Duty (on share transactions). These are National Statistics, National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

The UK Stamp Tax statistics (Quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax statistics and Annual UK Stamp Tax statistics) were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

The purpose of this document is to provide users of the statistics with information about the quality of the outputs, measured against various dimensions of statistical quality, as set out by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing [email protected].

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing [email protected] or via the OSR website.

3. Background to the statistics

3.1 Coverage

Scope of the statistics in the publication.

Quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax publication

Time period and geographic regions

The Quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax publication series provides quarterly statistics on receipts and transactions for Stamp Duty Land Tax valued at £40,000 and above from 2005 to 2006 to present. The publication includes receipts and transactions for all UK constituent countries up to April 2015. In April 2015 Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaced SDLT for transactions in Scotland, and in April 2018 Land Transaction Tax (LTT) replaced SDLT for transactions in Wales. This means transactions in Scotland after March 2015 and in Wales after March 2018 fall outside the geographic remit of SDLT and are no longer included in the publication.

Data splits provided in the publication

Data is split by property type, liability threshold and price band, including transactions paying the higher rates of SDLT for additional dwellings (HRAD), Non-Residents Stamp Duty Land Tax (NRSDLT) transactions and transactions claiming First Time Buyers’ Relief (FTBR). Further splits include region, buyer type, age profile, local authority and Westminster parliamentary constituency.

Other stamp taxes

Statistics on other stamp taxes including Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax are provided in the Annual stamp taxes Publication. 

Annual stamp taxes statistics publication

Time period and geographic regions

The Annual UK Stamp Taxes publication series provides the yearly totals and breakdowns of stamp taxes collected for the two main categories of ‘Land and property’ and ‘Stocks and shares and other liable securities’, and annual statistics on receipts, estimated property values and transactions for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) valued at £40,000.

The publication includes SDLT receipts, estimated property values and transactions for all UK constituent countries up to March 2015. In April 2015 Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaced SDLT for transactions in Scotland, and in April 2018 Land Transaction Tax (LTT) SDLT for transactions in Wales.

This means transactions in Scotland after March 2015 and in Wales after March 2018 fall outside the geographic remit of SDLT and are no longer included in the publication.

3.2 Data sources

Information on the data source the statistics are based on.

SDLT administrative data

The statistics are based on information provided on self-assessed returns, which are collected by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for the assessment and collection of SDLT. The information collected on each return is partially dependent on the nature of the transaction and the type of land or property being transacted. See further information on SDLT returns.

The majority of returns are submitted through the HMRC stamp taxes online service (either directly via the website or via authorised commercial software) by the solicitor, agent or conveyancer employed by the purchaser. A small percentage of returns (approximately 3%) are completed on paper, which can be submitted directly by the purchaser. Most paper returns are electronically scanned in; returns that are rejected are keyed in by HMRC operational staff. For both electronic and paper returns, there is basic data validation on entry which defines the range of acceptable entries for many of the fields. Certain fields critical to the assessment of the tax due are mandatory, and a return cannot be submitted unless they are completed. The Business Rules for SDLT Returns provide more detail on these validation checks.

When sufficient information is provided to HMRC about a property transaction a certificate is issued. The SDLT forms must be submitted whether or not the transaction is liable. Current rules require the return to be filed, and the tax due paid, within 14 days of the completion of a transaction. The data in this publication are based on a count of SDLT certificates issued for residential and non-residential transactions where the transaction value is £40,000 or above. Data is based upon the issue date of this certificate rather than the date a transaction was completed (sometimes referred to as the effective transaction date). SDLT certificates are required to register with HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland or Land Registry of Northern Ireland.

Annual UK Stamp Taxes statistics publication: receipts, estimated values and geographic breakdowns

The aggregate revenue figures are determined by financial accounts totals as published in HMRC’s annual report. Tax stated on SDLT returns will not match these figures exactly due to timing and the alteration of past returns, therefore all breakdowns of total revenues presented are aligned to the finance figures.

Figures for the value of property transactions are generally less reliable than receipts or numbers of transactions. The method used for estimating these total values means that in some instances the broken down figures will not sum to the overall totals.

The split of revenue and transactions between the various geographic units is based upon the declared location of the property being transacted.

Local authority and Westminster parliamentary constituency data is based on the postcode of the first listed property on the SDLT return. Those properties where the postcode is incomplete or cannot be matched are then matched using the local authority code on the return. There are a small minority of cases where this data is not recorded on the SDLT database. Transactions for which the local authority and Westminster parliamentary constituency are not known are included within regional totals.

Not all property transactions are captured in the HMRC administrative data. As well as transactions where the chargeable consideration is less than £40,000, other instances where no notification is required include transfers in connection with divorce and some grants of leases of less than 7 years. All transactions in Scotland from April 2015, and in Wales from April 2018, are also excluded.

HMRC publishes a guidance manual for tax professionals and operates a telephone helpline to assist with queries relating to the tax and its payment. See the HMRC guidance on Stamp duty and other tax on property.

3.3 Receipts and transactions methodology

Information on data is treated and quality assured to produce the statistics in the publication.

Data is extracted weekly from HMRC’s live database which stores the returns data, and stored in the Corporate Data Warehouse mainframe. New returns are added to the existing database, and records from returns which have been updated (due to voided transactions, errors, refunds or customer generated updates) are amended. Automated data validation is performed at this point, removing duplicate records. Duplicates can occur when a transaction has accidentally been submitted twice (online). Instances where there are multiple entries per transaction (such as details for more than one purchaser) are filtered to make a single record per transaction.

HMRC statisticians’ access this extracted data using SAS and perform analysis using SAS and R studio. Snapshots of the ‘live’ database are taken on a monthly basis for producing internal management information, and at this point statisticians perform basic data validation:

• checking for outliers (large or implausible values in the enclosed tax or consideration fields)

• checking record counts and total tax against previous months and expected values including fiscal forecasts

• where SDLT policy changes have been made, checking that expected outcomes are present (such as the presence of First Time Buyer’s Relief claims)

• where there are known common errors or inconsistencies in recording, the data is amended based on calculations using other fields 

Any records identified as suspicious will either be amended where the error is obvious (such as decimal point errors) or removed where they present a risk to the accuracy of the published statistics. Records are also removed where their inclusion presents a risk of taxpayer disclosure.

The final snapshot of the live database is taken in the second week after the end of the quarter. The date of this snapshot is maintained in order to provide consistency and is selected to provide users with the best balance between accurate and timely estimates. The snapshot joins fields which are relevant to the statistical outputs from the various tables associated with the returns and is stored in secure folders with restricted access.

Standard queries are then run to produce aggregated data, which is then arranged into output tables for publication. These tables undergo several rounds of quality assurance (QA) and scrutiny, including a QA checklist, to ensure the outputs are accurate and consistent, before being published on a quarterly basis.

Official statistics in development

The introduction of new data will initially be treated as Official statistics in development

Official statistics in development are statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed, which may be due to the following reasons:

• they are being produced part way through a well defined development programme, whether these statistics are new or changed versions of existing statistics

• the statistics are new but still subject to testing in terms of their volatility and ability to meet customer needs

• the statistics do not yet meet the rigorous quality standards of National Statistics

• a rich variety of new measures is available from a new set of statistics, with components that have considerable immediate value to users; these users are aware of the statistics’ theoretical quality and can use them before we have completed all operational testing – the testing is designed to fully validate the measures to the standard expected of National Statistics

3.4 Presentation of data and revisions

Information on how data is presented, rounding conventions and when data is revised.

Rounding

Transactions are rounded to the nearest hundred and receipts are rounded to either the nearest £million or nearest £5 million for larger values. Totals and subtotals are rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts. Percentages are calculated from rounded data.

Seasonal adjustment

The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This series is not seasonally adjusted in the quarterly or annual publication. For a seasonally adjusted monthly series please see our Monthly property transactions publication.

Revisions and timing of publication:

All figures in the tables for the current financial year are routinely marked as provisional, and are subject to significant revision in subsequent publications. Transactions are recorded by the date that their SDLT certificate was issued and are presented on that basis in this publication. However, purchasers have 14 days from the date of completion to submit their land transaction return before incurring a penalty. To produce the quarterly property transaction figures in time for publication each quarter, a ‘snapshot’ of the live database is taken in the second week after the end of the quarter, so at the time of first release, estimates for the most recent quarter are based on incomplete data.

Estimates for earlier time periods may also change between publications as late returns are received, and corrections are made to the SDLT database.

Finalised, ’clean’ figures for each financial year are published in the Annual UK Stamp Taxes statistics. The following quarterly publication will then contain the final figures. 

Corrections to the published statistics will be made if errors are found, or if figures change as a result of improvements to methodology or changes to definitions. All corrected figures will be identified as being a revision and an explanation will be given of the reason for and size of the revision. Corrections which would have a significant effect on the utility of the statistics will be corrected as soon as possible, by reissuing the publication. Minor errors will also be corrected, but for efficient use of resource these corrections may be timed to coincide with the next release of the quarterly publication.

3.5 Publication calendar

Information on when and how often the publication is published.

Publications will be released on or near the last working day of each quarter, but it is brought forward whenever the day preceding the last working day is a non working day (we never publish on a Monday, Saturday or Sunday). The full publication calendar can be found on the statistics release calendar.

3.6 Pre-release access

Information on HMRC’s pre-release policy and the access list.

HMRC pre-release statement:

See the statement of compliance with the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.

Pre-release access list:

Information regarding those who have pre-release access to National Statistics can be found on the HMRC statistics pre-release access list page.

3.7 Previous versions

Information on where previous versions of this publication can be found.

Prior to March 2016 the quarterly publication was known as ‘SDLT Liable and Non-Liable Property Transactions’, see our historic ‘Number of UK SDLT property transactions by liable and non-liable’ publication’. Prior to July 2015 the publication was known as ‘Liable and Non-Liable Property Transactions’.

4. Assessment of quality

4.1 Relevance

The degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.

The statistics primarily provide information on SDLT transactions on a quarterly and annual basis from 2007 to 2008 onwards. Some tables in the annual publication feature a longer time series, with total receipts going back to the introduction of SDLT in 2003. The number of transactions is broken down by property type, liability threshold, price band and age profiles. Net receipts are broken down by property type and include receipts from higher rates on additional dwellings (HRAD). Transaction numbers and receipts for Non Residents Stamp Duty Land Tax (NRSDLT) and transaction numbers for residential transactions benefitting from First Time Buyers’ Relief (FTBR) are also provided.

These outputs can be used to examine housing market trends, for academic analysis and policy evaluations, and are particularly useful in providing insight on the influence of the 2007 to 2008 financial crash on SDLT transactions and receipts, and the effect of successive changes to the rates charged.

The publication is primarily used by analysts, commentators and other government departments to examine UK trends in the housing market. They are also used to examine the effect of policy decisions and economic conditions on tax receipts.

4.2 Accuracy and reliability

The proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value.

The statistics are based on administrative data used by HMRC to run its business (collecting tax). They are therefore accurate and timely. The main quality issues are around completeness of information as much of the data is based on returns.

Transactions are recorded only when a tax return is received, potentially missing cases where a return is neither completed nor required, such as instances involving tax avoidance and evasion activities. It also records no transactions where the consideration, such as the price, is less than £40,000, as no tax is due. Other instances where no notification is required include transfers in connection with divorce and some grants of leases of less than 7 years. All transactions in Scotland from April 2015, and in Wales from April 2018, are also excluded.

The returns can take some time to be sent to HMRC and processed, however purchasers (or their agents) are required to file and return within 14 days of the completion of the transaction. By the time of publication almost 100% of returns will have been received.

There are likely to be some inaccuracies in the data due to reporting or keying errors, such as misclassification between residential and non-residential or misreporting of the transaction value. The latter can cause particularly large errors if left uncorrected. However, the dataset is cleansed and filtered through both automated data feeds and manual checking prior to use. Monthly management information is produced by the team, and at this point it is checked (as detailed earlier in this document) and if any errors such as missing transaction codes are identified, they are followed up with operational and IT teams, and action is taken to correct or adjust data. More comprehensive validation is undertaken for the annual publication, primarily relating to geographic breakdowns and inconsistent records, such as where stated tax does not match that expected for a property price and transaction type.

4.3 Timeliness and punctuality

Timeliness refers to the time gap between publication and the reference period. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and actual publication dates.

The release timetable is designed to provide users with the best balance of timeliness and accuracy. Release dates are announced in advance on the HMRC website.

This is a quarterly and annual publication. The statistics show data from the previous quarter and are generally published on or near the last working day of the month after the end of the quarter being reported on (unless that day is a Monday, Saturday or Sunday). The delay in publication is to allow time for most Land Transaction Returns to be submitted and for data cleansing.

4.4 Accessibility and clarity

Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data is available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice.

The publication is available in both Ods and HTML formats and includes contact details (both email and telephone) for sending queries and feedback to the production team. 

The statistics are taken directly from the source data that is collected for administrative purposes with little manipulation between source and publication. Our publications directly reflect the tax system definitions and therefore the administrative data is an accurate and relevant data source. 

The contents of the tables and the level of detail required reflects the needs of our users. We provide and link to supporting information about the tax, and define important terms where used in order to assist users in interpreting the statistics.

We provide relevant policy information, particularly concerning major changes to SDLT.

4.5 Coherence and comparability

Coherence is the degree to which data that is derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, is similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain.

The SDLT receipts tables are consistent with other HMRC outputs on departmental performance, such as the annual report and the Trust Statement. Total receipts suggested by the SDLT returns are adjusted to match HMRC receipts as reported in the monthly HMRC Receipts and National Insurance Contributions for the UK. There is often a few percentage points difference in the two sources, which is largely caused by amendments to returns and the timing of payments (where purchases are completed late in the month, they may pay HMRC in the following month.)

SDLT returns data is derived from a single source, and is the same source used in the Monthly property transactions publication. The monthly publication uses a different date for reporting (the effective date) and therefore transaction counts for any given time period will not match exactly.

In terms of comparability, the major change to SDLT data occurred in 2013 when returns were digitised. This resulted in significant improvements to timeliness and accuracy. Any apparent inconsistencies with prior data was checked and verified.

Changes over time are verified by checking trends in different breakdowns such as transaction numbers, revenues, regions, local authority and parliamentary constituency. Policy announcements relating to SDLT and other taxes affecting property are monitored and the data is continuously checked for coherence with these policies. 

4.6 Trade-off between output quality components

Trade-offs are the extent to which different aspects of quality are balanced against each other.

The statistics are produced and released according to a preannounced timetable, which can be found on the Statistics at HMRC page.

The timetable for publication is designed to provide users with the best balance of timeliness and accuracy. At the time of production of the publication, some records may still be incomplete, and compliance checks by HMRC may result in the subsequent alteration of returns.

4.7 Assessment of user needs and perceptions

The processes for finding out about users and uses, and their views on the statistical products.

The producers work closely with the main customers and stakeholders in HMRC, HM Treasury and the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) to keep track of changes and developments in the tax policy, and continuously review the coverage and content of our publications to ensure that they meet the needs of those users.

Broader consultations are conducted when appropriate, for example when significantly changing the provision or coverage of the published data, or revising the methodology used. These will generally involve contacting known users of the published statistics to ask specific questions or request feedback. These questions would also be published on the website adjacent or linked to the publication in order to capture users with whom we have had no previous contact. 

The results of user consultations would then be published on the website. The latest consultation took place in 2015 and the results can be found alongside the most recent publications. 

Contact details are available at the bottom of each publication for users to get in touch if they have a query. We also added some footnotes to explain changes in data and trends, as well as important definitions throughout the commentary.

4.8 Confidentiality, transparency and security

The procedures and policy used to ensure sound confidentiality, security and transparent practices.

The data is held in a secure server. Access to this data is only granted to those who require it for business purposes only. 

4.9 Confidentiality and access

All persons that have pre-release access to the published data (aside from the production team) are listed on the HMRC website.

4.10 Performance, cost and respondent burden

The effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the statistical output.

All published tables use HMRC administrative data so there are no explicit costs of production. Much of the data would be produced regardless of publication for internal monitoring and policy development purposes.

4.11 Archived UK Stamp Tax statistics methodology quality reports

The 2020 methodology quality report HTML and the 2018 methodology quality report PDF are both available on the National Archives website.