SDLT relief when an employer buys your old home after a work move
Employer relocation relief
An employer may receive SDLT relief when it buys an employee’s old home because a job move requires the employee to relocate.
- The employee must have used the home as their main or only home within two years.
- The new workplace and reason for moving are central.
- Too much land can lead to partial, rather than full, relief.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
SDLT relief when an employer buys your old home after a work move
SDLT relief when an employer buys your old home after a work move
If your employer buys your old home because a job move means you need to relocate, it may not have to pay stamp duty land tax. Strict conditions apply. Your old home, your new workplace, the price and the land all matter.
What this rule is about
Some employers help staff move by buying the home they are leaving. Schedule 6A to the Finance Act 2003 provides an SDLT exemption for certain purchases of that kind.
In simple terms, this applies where an employer buys an employee’s old home because work has made a move necessary and the relevant conditions are satisfied. That is its purpose. It is not a general tax break for an employer buying property from staff.
What really decides it? Why the move happened, together with the facts at the date of purchase.
What the official source says
According to HMRC’s manual, a purchase can be fully exempt when every condition is met, and the legislation applies the same core test to an employer’s purchase of an interest in a home by transfer from an individual. Every condition matters.
- An individual must be the seller, whether they own the home alone or with other individuals.
- For the buyer, it must be the seller’s employer. This can include an employer they are about to join.
- At some point in the two years ending on the purchase date, the seller must have lived in the home as their only or main home.
- A connection must exist between the purchase and the seller changing home because their employment moved.
- A job move may result from starting work with that employer, changing duties, or changing the normal workplace.
- Wholly or mainly, the move must be made so the seller can live within a reasonable daily journey of the new workplace.
- That workplace must not itself be within a reasonable daily journey of the old home.
- An employer’s payment must not exceed the home’s market value.
- Purchased land must not exceed the permitted area.
Normally, the permitted area covers the home and its garden or grounds up to 0.5 hectare, including the building, although a larger area can qualify where the home’s size and character require more land for reasonable enjoyment as a home. Context can matter.
What this means in practice
Every main condition must be met for a full exemption. A work move alone is not enough. For example, moving closer because the journey feels easier may not meet the test if the old home remains within a reasonable daily journey.
Too much land does not always make the relief fail. When the first three main conditions are met, but the employer buys too much land, the law gives partial relief instead.
- SDLT then applies only to a calculated part of the deal.
- The calculation uses market values, not simply the price assigned to extra land in the contract.
- Start with the market value of the whole home and all the land bought.
- Then subtract the market value of the permitted area.
- The balance counts as the amount paid for SDLT purposes.
This distinction can be valuable. It also means that a reliable valuation can matter as much as the sale price.
How to analyse it
Work through the facts in order. Do not begin with the land, or with an assumption that any new job qualifies.
- Confirm that the buyer is the employee’s current or prospective employer.
- Check that the seller is an individual and that the deal transfers an interest in their old home.
- Look for evidence that, during the two years before the purchase, the seller used the home as their only or main home.
- Identify what changed at work: a new role, changed duties, or a new normal workplace.
- Ask why the seller changed home and whether that reason was mainly the work move.
- Compare the old home’s journey to the new normal workplace with the required reasonable daily journey test.
- Obtain evidence of market value at the purchase date.
- Measure the land and decide what area forms the home’s garden or grounds.
- If the land exceeds the permitted area, value both the permitted area and the whole property.
You might think a fixed commute time settles this. It does not. The source gives no set number of miles or minutes.
Example
Anna moves for a new job. Her new employer buys the home she has lived in for the last year because her former home is too far from the workplace for a reasonable daily journey. The employer pays no more than market value.
The whole property, including all land, has a market value of £700,000. The home and its permitted garden area have a market value of £500,000. If the other conditions are met but the land is too large, £200,000 counts as the amount paid for SDLT: £700,000 minus £500,000.
This example does not calculate tax. The SDLT rates depend on the law in force on the relevant purchase date.
Why this can be difficult in practice
Often, these cases turn on records made at the time rather than on what people remember later. A clear relocation letter may help. So may proof of where the employee normally worked and lived.
Land can create a separate problem. A large plot does not automatically fail, but it needs careful evidence and valuation. It is not simply a question of how many acres were sold.
- A job title alone may not show where the employee normally worked.
- Working from home can make the normal workplace harder to identify.
- A move for family or lifestyle reasons may weaken the link with relocation.
- Council tax records support occupation, but they do not prove every part of the test.
- A sale price below market value does not remove the need to establish the other conditions.
- Extra fields, woodland or other land may affect the permitted-area calculation.
- A later valuation should explain the property’s value at the purchase date.
Key takeaways
- After a genuine work move, an employer’s purchase of an employee’s old home can qualify for SDLT relief.
- The old home must have been the employee’s only or main home within the previous two years.
- If too much land is included, partial relief may still limit the SDLT amount.
Technical analysis
For advisers, and for anyone who wants to check the law behind this page. You do not need this section to understand the guidance above.
Legislation
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 5 — employer relief when an employee relocates for work (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 7 — meaning of home and permitted garden area (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
Official guidance
The pages below are HMRC’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how HMRC reads the legislation, and it is not binding on you, on a tribunal or on a court. Where guidance and the legislation differ, the legislation wins. HMRC can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
Where this is not settled
- Whether a journey is a reasonable daily travelling distance depends on the employee’s actual workplace and circumstances.
- Whether a larger area of land is needed for reasonable enjoyment depends on the home’s size, character and land.
- Valuing the permitted area and the whole property may need professional valuation evidence.
- The supplied statutory text records changes known to be in force only up to 17 November 2025. Check current legislation for a later purchase.
- The supplied source does not explain the return process or any time limit for claiming partial relief.
Evidence you would need
This kind of case is decided on the facts of the individual property. These are the records that usually settle it, and the ones an adviser would ask you for.
- Signed contract, transfer and completion statement — who sold the home, who bought it and what land transferred
- Employment contract, offer letter or relocation letter — the new or changed job and why a move was needed
- Letter confirming the normal workplace after the move — where the employee normally performs their duties
- Travel records, route maps and work attendance records — whether the old home was outside a reasonable daily journey
- Council tax bills, utility bills and electoral-register records — that the employee used the old home as their main home
- Independent market valuation at the purchase date — whether the employer paid no more than market value
- Land Registry title, filed plan and sale plan — the precise land included with the home
- Survey, measured acreage and dated aerial photographs — the size, layout and use of the garden and other land
- Valuation separating the permitted area from extra land — the amount that may remain subject to SDLT
Explore this with an AI
Readers often want to test their own situation. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It hands the model the actual legislation for this page rather than letting it answer from memory, and tells it to be explicit about what is uncertain. What comes back is information, not advice – check it against the links above.
I am researching UK Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), which applies in England and Northern Ireland. MY QUESTION SDLT relief when an employer buys your old home after a work move [Replace this with your own situation: what you are buying, the price, the dates, who the buyer is, and what you plan to do with the property.] THE LAW THIS TURNS ON - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 5 - employer relief when an employee relocates for work https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/5/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 7 - meaning of home and permitted garden area https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/7/2025-11-17 HMRC's guidance page on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm21060 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. HMRC guidance is HMRC's view of the law, not the law, and does not bind a tribunal or a court. 2. Tell me what the rule actually requires, in plain English. 3. Tell me which facts decide the answer, and which facts would change it. 4. Tell me what evidence I would need to support the position. 5. Be explicit about anything unsettled or fact-sensitive. Do not guess. 6. Your training data has a cutoff and SDLT rates and reliefs change at fiscal events. Say so if you are not sure the law is current. POINTS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE UNCERTAIN ON THIS TOPIC - Whether a journey is a reasonable daily travelling distance depends on the employee's actual workplace and circumstances. - Whether a larger area of land is needed for reasonable enjoyment depends on the home's size, character and land. - Valuing the permitted area and the whole property may need professional valuation evidence. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show Finance Act 2003 as it stood on 2025-11-17. The law may have changed since, and the rules that apply are those in force on the date of your transaction. The official guidance this page is based on is here.
This page was last updated on 1 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: SDLT relief when an employer buys your old home after a work move
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