SDLT1 question 4: choosing the effective date
The short answer
Question 4 on SDLT1 may need the date you took possession, paid most of the price or first paid rent, rather than completion.
- HMRC treats 90% or more as substantial guidance.
- The law does not set a fixed percentage.
- Keep clear evidence of payments and possession dates.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
SDLT1 question 4: choosing the effective date
For stamp duty land tax, the key date is not always the day you complete. Question 4 of SDLT1 may require an earlier date if you pay most of the price, take possession, or start paying rent earlier.
A mistake can affect when the tax point arises.
What this rule is about
Question 4 on the paper SDLT1 form, or question 1.4 online, asks for the effective date. Normally, this is the completion date: the day of the formal property transfer.
This can happen when possession has passed, when most consideration has been paid, or when rent has started before completion, even though the formal transfer remains outstanding.
The earlier event then matters. The tax system can treat the contract itself, rather than the later formal transfer, as the transaction occurring on the day substantial performance took place.
That earlier day may therefore control. The distinction may sound minor, but it can alter the date you must use.
What the official source says
HMRC’s manual says that, if substantial performance comes before completion, you should enter that earlier date. The entry must use the format dd/mm/yyyy. A single-digit day or month needs a zero first.
- Substantial performance can arise when all, or almost all, of the property is taken into possession.
- The same result can follow when the buyer, or someone connected with them, takes that possession.
- Paying a substantial amount of the price can have the same effect.
- For a lease with rent only, the first rent payment can trigger substantial performance.
- Where the deal includes rent and another payment, either the first rent payment or a substantial non-rent payment can do so.
- HMRC says it normally sees 90% or more as substantial.
- You must not enter a future date in the form.
The 90% figure is HMRC’s view in its manual, rather than a figure written into the legislation, even though it may be useful when assessing whether substantially the whole has been paid.
Instead, the law uses the words “substantially the whole”.
Cases below 90% may require careful thought about the payments, possession and particular facts. There is no automatic answer.
What this means in practice
Do not assume that completion controls the date merely because it is the date your solicitor focuses on. Review the deal from the beginning.
Did you get the keys early? Did you move in? Did you pay most of the money before the transfer?
If so, the earlier event may be the effective date. If a contract was substantially performed before later completion, that completion can create a further point at which notification may be required.
Check this separately. HMRC’s manual warns that you may have to notify HMRC again when completion happens.
- Use the actual earlier event date, not the planned completion date.
- Keep proof of payments, access arrangements and key handovers.
- Check whether early occupation gave you real use of the whole property.
- For a lease, check not only the first rent payment but also any premium or deposit-like payment that may have been made before the formal grant. Both can matter.
- Do not treat the 90% figure as a safe harbour set by Parliament, even where the payment pattern, possession arrangements or other circumstances might appear to point that way. It is not one.
How to analyse it
Begin with dates rather than labels. Calling an arrangement “early access” does not decide the issue.
What you could do, what you paid, and when you did so are what matter.
- Write down the contract date, each payment date, any possession date and completion date.
- Ask whether you, or a connected person, took control of all, or nearly all, of the property, including through possession, access or practical use before completion. Record the facts.
- Check whether you received rent from the property, or gained the right to receive it.
- Add up payments made before completion and compare them with the total amount due.
- For a lease, identify whether the first rent payment came before the formal grant.
- Choose the earliest event that amounts to substantial performance.
- Enter that date as dd/mm/yyyy in question 4.
- Then check whether later completion creates a further SDLT filing obligation.
A separate rule applies to an agreement for a lease. If such an agreement is substantially performed before the lease is granted, it is treated as a lease beginning on the substantial-performance date.
That is why rent payments matter here.
Example
Amir signs a contract to buy a shop for £400,000. On 07/03/2025, he pays £360,000 and receives the keys. The formal transfer completes on 21/03/2025.
HMRC’s manual treats 90% as substantial. On these facts, 07/03/2025 is the date to enter in question 4, rather than 21/03/2025.
Change one detail and the answer may be less clear. If Amir paid much less and only visited the shop to measure it up, those facts may not show substantial performance.
Completion may then remain the effective date.
Why this can be difficult in practice
This issue often lies between the contract, the bank records and the handover arrangements. At the time, nobody may have called it “substantial performance”.
Yet the practical facts can determine the date.
- Having keys does not always mean you took possession of nearly all the property.
- Short-term access for surveys, repairs or moving items may be different from taking control.
- A payment may look like part of the price, but it still needs checking against the full deal, including what is payable under connected arrangements and how each sum is characterised.
- Payments connected with a lease may need separating between rent and other sums.
- HMRC’s 90% view helps, but it does not answer every case below that figure.
- Defaulting to the completion date can be wrong when the deal was already substantially performed.
Key takeaways
- The effective date is usually completion, but not always.
- Early possession, a substantial payment or first rent payment can bring the date forward.
- Enter the real date in dd/mm/yyyy format and never post-date it.
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 section 44 — contracts completed after substantial performance
- FA 2003 section 119 — the effective date of a land transaction
- FA 2003 Schedule 17A para 12A — agreements for leases performed before grant
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
- The legislation does not define exactly what percentage is a substantial amount of payment or possession.
- It can be unclear when a buyer has possession, especially where early access is limited or temporary.
- The supplied statutory text does not confirm the law for transactions with an effective date after 17 November 2025.
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.
- The signed contract and completion documents
- Evidence of the date and amount of every payment
- Records showing when keys, access or occupation began
- Lease terms and the date of any first rent payment
- Details of any person connected with the buyer who took possession
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 SDLT1 question 4: choosing the effective date [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 section 44 - contracts completed after substantial performance https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/section/44/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 section 119 - the effective date of a land transaction https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/section/119/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 17A para 12A - agreements for leases performed before grant https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/17A/paragraph/12A/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/sdltm62070 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 - The legislation does not define exactly what percentage is a substantial amount of payment or possession. - It can be unclear when a buyer has possession, especially where early access is limited or temporary. - The supplied statutory text does not confirm the law for transactions with an effective date after 17 November 2025. 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: SDLT1 question 4: choosing the effective date
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