Guide to Completing ‘About the Calculation’ Section of Online LBTT Return

How to complete the ‘About the calculation’ section of an online LBTT return

The ‘About the calculation’ section of an online LBTT return shows how the tax due has been worked out from information entered earlier in the return, especially in the ‘About the transaction’ section. It brings together any LBTT, Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), and reliefs to show the total tax payable, but it does not include penalties or interest.

• This section only becomes editable after the ‘About the transaction’ section has been completed.
• It shows key figures such as LBTT calculated, ADS calculated, total liability, reliefs claimed, and total tax payable.
• The figures are mainly pulled through from earlier entries, so an unexpected result often means the transaction details or relief details need checking.
• Not every field will apply in every case, for example where ADS does not apply or no reliefs are claimed.
• Total tax payable should reflect the total liability after deducting any LBTT and ADS reliefs.
• Penalties and interest are dealt with separately by Revenue Scotland and should not be entered in this section.

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How to complete the ‘About the calculation’ section of an online LBTT return

This section of the online Land and Buildings Transaction Tax return shows how the tax due has been calculated. In practice, it pulls together figures already entered elsewhere in the return, especially from the ‘About the transaction’ section, and shows the overall tax payable after any reliefs. It matters because this is the part of the return that confirms the amount of LBTT and, where relevant, the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) that is due.

What this rule is about

The official page is concerned with one part of Revenue Scotland’s online LBTT return: the ‘About the calculation’ section. This is not a separate legal test for whether tax is due. It is the part of the online form where the return calculates and displays the tax figures based on information already provided.

The page also makes clear that this section is linked to the earlier ‘About the transaction’ section. That means the calculation cannot be completed in isolation. If the underlying transaction details are wrong or incomplete, the calculation section will not give the right result.

What the official source says

Revenue Scotland says that the ‘About the calculation’ section only becomes editable once the ‘About the transaction’ section has been completed.

When you open the section using the edit button, the form allows you to review or amend these fields:

• LBTT calculated
• ADS calculated
• Total liability
• Total LBTT reliefs claimed
• Total ADS reliefs claimed
• Total tax payable

The official material explains that several of these figures come from amounts entered in the ‘About the transaction’ section. The return then uses them to show the total liability and the total tax payable after reliefs.

The source also says that some fields may not apply to a particular transaction. For example, a transaction may involve LBTT only, or LBTT with no reliefs, so not every field will always need to be changed.

Importantly, the source states that penalties and interest should not be included in these figures. Revenue Scotland administers penalties and interest separately.

Once any necessary amendments have been made, selecting next updates the figures and carries them through to the return summary.

What this means in practice

This section is mainly a calculation and confirmation stage. It is where you check that the return is producing the right tax figures from the information already entered.

The practical effect of each field is as follows:

• LBTT calculated: the amount of LBTT generated from the transaction details already entered.
• ADS calculated: the amount of Additional Dwelling Supplement generated, if ADS applies.
• Total liability: the combined amount of LBTT and ADS, where one or both apply.
• Total LBTT reliefs claimed: any LBTT relief entered earlier in the return.
• Total ADS reliefs claimed: any ADS relief entered earlier in the return.
• Total tax payable: the amount left after deducting any LBTT and ADS reliefs from the total liability.

In other words, this section is where the return turns the transaction details into the amount actually payable.

It also serves as a useful sense-check. If the tax shown here is not what you expected, the problem may not be in the calculation section itself. It may be in the transaction data, the relief entries, or whether ADS has been triggered at all.

How to analyse it

A sensible way to work through this section is:

• First confirm that the ‘About the transaction’ section has been completed fully, because the calculation section depends on it.
• Check whether the transaction gives rise to LBTT only, ADS only, or both.
• Check whether any reliefs have been claimed and whether they were entered correctly in the earlier part of the return.
• Review the figures shown for LBTT calculated and ADS calculated.
• Check that the total liability matches the combined tax that should arise before reliefs.
• Check that the relief figures being deducted are the ones you intended to claim.
• Confirm that the total tax payable is simply the total liability minus the reliefs claimed.
• Do not add penalties or interest into any of these fields.
• After making any changes, move on so the updated figures appear in the return summary.

A useful question to ask is whether an apparent calculation issue is really a data-entry issue from an earlier section. Because several figures are carried through automatically, an incorrect entry earlier in the return can affect the final tax payable shown here.

Example

Illustration: a buyer completes the ‘About the transaction’ section and enters the details of a purchase that gives rise to LBTT. They also enter a relief claim that reduces the LBTT due. When they open ‘About the calculation’, the online return shows the LBTT calculated, the total relief claimed, and the reduced amount of tax payable. If the relief amount looks wrong, the buyer should check the earlier transaction section rather than assuming the calculation page itself is applying the wrong formula.

Another illustration: if ADS does not apply to the transaction, the ADS fields may not be relevant and may not need any amendment.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The official guidance is short and procedural. The main difficulty is that it does not explain in detail why a figure appears in the calculation section or how that figure was derived. Because of that, users may think they are correcting a calculation when the real issue is that the underlying transaction information was entered incorrectly.

Another practical difficulty is that not every field will apply to every return. That can be confusing if a user expects all boxes to be relevant in every case. The source makes clear that some fields may not apply and may not need to be amended.

A further point is that penalties and interest are separate from the tax calculation. Someone trying to reconcile the total amount owed may wrongly try to include them here, but the official guidance says not to do that.

Key takeaways

• The ‘About the calculation’ section depends on the earlier ‘About the transaction’ section and cannot be completed properly without it.
• This section brings together LBTT, ADS, and any reliefs to show the total tax payable.
• Penalties and interest are not part of this calculation and should not be entered in these fields.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guide to Completing ‘About the Calculation’ Section of Online LBTT Return

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