Grant of Lease Example: SDLT No Longer Applies in Scotland

Archived HMRC guidance on SDLT and lease grants

This archived HMRC page gives very little useful detail about “Example 7” on the grant of a lease. Its main point is that the page is only an archive notice and that, from April 2015, Scottish land transactions stopped being subject to SDLT and moved to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax instead.

• The page does not include the actual content of Example 7, so it cannot be relied on to explain the lease notification rules.
• For land in England and Northern Ireland, SDLT may still apply to the grant of a lease.
• For land in Scotland, SDLT generally does not apply to transactions from April 2015 onwards; LBTT applies instead.
• The key practical questions are where the land is located, the transaction date, and whether the matter is current or historic.
• An archived SDLT manual page may be relevant only as historical background, especially for older Scottish transactions before the change to LBTT.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

SDLT on the grant of a lease: archived Example 7

This page relates to an archived HMRC manual entry about notifying Stamp Duty Land Tax when a lease is granted. The source text itself contains almost no substantive guidance. Its main practical point is that the page is archived and that, from April 2015, SDLT no longer applies to land transactions in Scotland. Scottish land transactions are instead dealt with under Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

What this rule is about

The source appears to be part of HMRC’s SDLT manual section on notification for the grant of a lease. In SDLT, the grant of a lease can create a notifiable land transaction, depending on the facts and the rules in force at the time. Manual examples in this area are usually intended to show when a return is needed and how lease rules apply in practice.

However, the supplied source does not include the example itself. It only shows an archive notice. That means the useful legal content is missing, and no reliable conclusion can be drawn from this page alone about how Example 7 works.

What the official source says

The official text provided says only that the page is archived and that, from April 2015, SDLT no longer applies to land transactions in Scotland. It adds that such transactions are instead subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

That is an important jurisdictional point:

• SDLT continues to apply to land transactions in England and Northern Ireland.
• Scottish land transactions moved out of SDLT from April 2015.
• For Scotland, the relevant tax is LBTT rather than SDLT.

What this means in practice

If you are looking at the grant of a lease, one of the first questions is where the land is situated. That determines which transaction tax regime applies.

• If the land is in England or Northern Ireland, SDLT may apply.
• If the land is in Scotland, SDLT generally does not apply for transactions from April 2015 onwards, and LBTT must be considered instead.

This matters because the filing rules, charging provisions, and lease calculations are not interchangeable across the different UK property tax regimes. An archived SDLT example may still be historically relevant for older Scottish transactions before the changeover date, but it is not a safe guide for current Scottish transactions.

How to analyse it

Given the limited source material, the sensible approach is to work through these questions:

• What is the effective date of the transaction?
• Where is the land located?
• Is the transaction the grant of a lease, or some other land transaction?
• Are you dealing with a current transaction or a historic one?
• If the land is in Scotland, does LBTT apply instead of SDLT because of the post-April 2015 regime?
• If you need the substance of “Example 7”, can it be located from another archived source or related manual page?

Without the missing example text, this page should be treated as a signpost rather than a complete statement of the law.

Example

Illustration: a tenant takes a new lease of commercial premises in Edinburgh in 2026. An SDLT manual example about lease notification is not the starting point, because the land is in Scotland and the transaction is long after the April 2015 change. The correct regime to consider is LBTT.

By contrast, if someone is reviewing a historic Scottish lease transaction from before the changeover, an archived SDLT manual page may still have background relevance, but only in its historical context.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The difficulty here is not the legal rule stated on the page, but the lack of content. The title suggests there should be an example explaining a lease notification issue, but the supplied material does not include that explanation. As a result:

• you cannot safely infer the facts or conclusion of Example 7;
• you cannot assume the archived page reflects current law for Scotland;
• you should not treat a manual heading alone as enough to determine filing obligations.

There can also be complexity where transactions sit around the change from SDLT to LBTT, or where a reader is using old HMRC material for a transaction in the wrong jurisdiction.

Key takeaways

• The supplied page does not contain the substance of Example 7; it is mainly an archive notice.
• From April 2015, SDLT no longer applies to Scottish land transactions; LBTT applies instead.
• The first practical question is where the land is located and whether you are dealing with a current or historic transaction.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Grant of Lease Example: SDLT No Longer Applies in Scotland

View all HMRC SDLT Guidance Pages Here