Guide to Completing the ‘About the Buyer’ Section of LBTT Return Form

Completing the ‘About the buyer’ section of an online LBTT return

The ‘About the buyer’ section of an LBTT return is used to identify each buyer correctly, record their legal status, and provide contact details for Revenue Scotland. The information required depends on whether the buyer is an individual, a Companies House registered company, or another type of organisation, and each buyer must be entered separately.

• Choose the correct buyer type: private individual, Companies House registered company, or another organisation such as a partnership, trust, charity, club, or unregistered company.
• Individual buyers must usually provide their name, contact details, address, and National Insurance number or other ID; title is optional.
• Companies and other organisations must provide the organisation’s details and also name a contact person with their job title, address, email, and phone number.
• You must state if a different correspondence address should be used, as Revenue Scotland may send future communications there.
• The return also asks whether the buyer is connected to the seller under the legal test in section 58 of the LBTT (Scotland) Act 2013, and whether the buyer is acting as a trustee or representative partner.
• For overseas addresses, enter the address manually and put any international postcode in the building and street fields rather than the postcode box.

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

This page explains what information Revenue Scotland asks for in the ‘About the buyer’ section of an online Land and Buildings Transaction Tax return, and how to enter it correctly. The section matters because the return needs to identify each buyer properly, record how they are acting, and capture contact details for future correspondence.

What this rule is about

When an LBTT return is submitted, Revenue Scotland needs enough information to identify the buyer or buyers and understand their legal status. The questions are not all the same for every buyer. The online return changes depending on whether the buyer is an individual, a company registered with Companies House, or another type of organisation.

This section also asks for information that can affect the tax analysis or administration of the return, including whether the buyer is connected to the seller and whether the buyer is acting as a trustee or representative partner for tax purposes.

If there is more than one buyer, each buyer must be added separately.

What the official source says

The Revenue Scotland guidance says you add a buyer by using the ‘add a buyer’ button in the ‘About the buyer’ section.

You must then choose the buyer type that best fits the buyer. The options covered in the guidance are:

• Private individual
• Organisation registered with Companies House
• Another organisation

For these purposes, ‘another organisation’ includes a partnership, trust, charity, club, other body, and a company not registered with Companies House.

If the buyer is a private individual, the return asks for:

• title
• first name
• last name
• telephone number
• email
• National Insurance number, or another form of ID if there is no National Insurance number
• address

The guidance states that all of these fields are mandatory except title.

The return also asks whether a different address should be used for future correspondence about the return. If the answer is yes, a separate contact address for the buyer must be entered.

If the buyer is an organisation registered with Companies House, the return asks for the registered company number. The company name and address are then populated automatically, although the guidance says these can be edited if necessary.

The return then asks for contact details for the company contact:

• first name
• last name
• job title or position
• address
• email
• contact phone number

If the buyer is another organisation, the return first asks for the type of organisation. If ‘other’ is chosen, an explanation must be given. If ‘charity’ is chosen, the charity number must be provided.

The return then asks for:

• name of the organisation
• address of the organisation
• the country’s law governing the organisation, meaning where the organisation is registered

After that, it asks for the organisation’s point of contact:

• first name
• last name
• job title or position
• address
• email
• contact phone number

Under buyer details, the return asks:

• whether the buyer is connected to the seller
• whether the buyer is acting as a trustee or representative partner for tax purposes

The guidance says ‘yes’ should be entered for connected persons where buyer and seller are connected within section 58 of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013.

The guidance also explains how to enter an international postcode. The postcode should not be entered in the postcode box. Instead, the user should choose ‘Enter an address manually’ and put the international postcode into the ‘Building and street’ text boxes.

What this means in practice

The main practical point is that the return is trying to identify both the legal buyer and a real-world contact person. That is why some fields relate to the buyer itself, while others relate to a contact who can deal with Revenue Scotland.

For an individual buyer, the return is straightforward: it asks for personal identification and contact details. For a company or other organisation, the return needs both the organisation’s details and the details of a named contact.

The question about a different correspondence address matters because Revenue Scotland may use that address for future communications about the return. If the buyer wants correspondence to go somewhere other than the main address, that needs to be stated clearly in the return.

The connected-persons question matters because connection between buyer and seller can be relevant to the tax treatment of the transaction. The guidance does not explain the full effect here, but it does make clear that the test is the statutory one in section 58 of the 2013 Act, not an informal idea of whether the parties know each other.

The trustee or representative partner question matters because the buyer may be acting in a representative capacity for tax purposes rather than purely in its own right. The return needs to reflect that status.

If there is more than one buyer, each one should be entered separately rather than trying to combine names in a single buyer record.

How to analyse it

A sensible way to complete this part of the return is to work through the following questions.

• Who is the legal buyer named in the transaction documents?
• Is the buyer an individual, a Companies House registered company, or another kind of organisation?
• If it is another organisation, what type is it exactly: for example a trust, partnership, charity, club, or unregistered company?
• Do you have the correct identifying details for that buyer, including any company number, charity number, National Insurance number, or alternative ID?
• Who should be named as the contact person for Revenue Scotland correspondence?
• Should correspondence go to the buyer’s main address or to a different address?
• Is the buyer connected to the seller under the statutory connected-persons rules in section 58?
• Is the buyer acting as a trustee or representative partner for tax purposes?
• Are there multiple buyers who each need to be added separately?
• If any address is outside the UK, has the address been entered manually so the international postcode does not trigger an error?

Using this approach helps separate three issues that are easy to confuse: the identity of the buyer, the identity of the contact person, and the address for correspondence.

Example

Suppose the purchaser is a Scottish charity buying property in its own name. In the ‘About the buyer’ section, the buyer would not be entered as a private individual. It would be entered as ‘another organisation’, with the organisation type shown as charity. The charity number would need to be provided, along with the charity’s name, address, and the law governing the organisation. The return would also require the details of a named contact person within the charity. If Revenue Scotland correspondence should go to the charity’s solicitors or another address instead of the charity’s main address, that separate correspondence address should be entered where the return asks for it.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The most common difficulty is identifying the correct buyer category. Some buyers do not fit neatly into everyday labels. For example, a body may trade like a company but not be registered with Companies House, or property may be acquired by trustees, partners, or another representative person. In those cases, it is important to focus on the legal status of the buyer rather than the commercial description used informally.

The connected-persons question can also be difficult. The guidance points to the statutory definition in section 58, which means the answer depends on the legal rules on connection, not simply whether the parties are related in a broad or colloquial sense.

Another practical issue is address entry for overseas addresses. If an international postcode is entered in the postcode box, the system may reject it. The guidance’s workaround is to enter the address manually and place the international postcode in the building and street fields.

There can also be uncertainty where pre-populated company details need editing. The guidance says the populated company name and address can be edited if necessary, but in practice any change should still accurately reflect the buyer’s legal details as they should appear on the return.

Key takeaways

• Choose the buyer type carefully, because the return asks for different information depending on whether the buyer is an individual, a registered company, or another organisation.
• The return needs both buyer details and, for organisations, a named contact person, and it may also require a separate correspondence address.
• Pay particular attention to connected-person status, trustee or representative partner status, multiple buyers, and the special method for entering international postcodes.

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 the ‘About the Buyer’ Section of LBTT Return Form

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