Guidance on Submitting, Amending, and Paying Land and Buildings Transaction Tax

Submitting, amending and paying LBTT online

Revenue Scotland deals with Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) through different online processes depending on what you need to do. The key practical step is to identify whether you are filing a new return, dealing with a lease or lease review, correcting a submitted return, claiming an Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) repayment, or paying tax or a penalty. Organisations and tax professionals must also have the right online registration and user access before they can file.

• There are separate online routes for standard LBTT returns, lease returns, lease review returns, amendments, ADS repayment claims, tax payments and penalty payments.
• Lease matters may need a different process from a normal property transaction, including later review returns for tenants or agents.
• If a return has already been submitted, the correct route may be an amendment rather than a new filing.
• Paying LBTT is different from paying a late filing penalty, and each has its own guidance.
• Organisations and tax professionals must register to submit LBTT returns online, and individual users may need to be added and given permissions through SETS.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

How to submit, amend and pay LBTT

This page explains what the Revenue Scotland material is covering when it refers to submitting, amending and paying Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) online. The source is mainly a signpost page, but it shows the main practical routes a taxpayer, organisation or agent may need to use after an LBTT filing obligation arises.

What this rule is about

LBTT is the Scottish tax on land transactions. In practice, once a transaction needs an LBTT return, the next issues are usually procedural rather than conceptual: how to file the return, who can access the online system, how to deal with lease-specific returns, how to correct a mistake, and how to pay the tax or any penalty.

The source material is not setting out the detailed legal rules for when LBTT is due. Instead, it is identifying the official online routes for dealing with LBTT administration through Revenue Scotland’s systems.

What the official source says

The official page says that this section contains guidance on:

• completing and submitting LBTT returns online
• completing and submitting LBTT lease returns online
• making LBTT lease review returns, with separate guidance for tenants and for agents
• amending an LBTT return after submission
• claiming a repayment of the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS)
• paying LBTT for online returns
• paying a penalty for a late LBTT return

The page also states that if you are an organisation or tax professional, you need to register in order to submit LBTT returns online. If the organisation is already registered but an individual user does not yet have their own login, the relevant step is to add that user through the SETS system and manage permissions there.

What this means in practice

The practical point is that LBTT administration is split into different tasks, and the correct route depends on what stage you are at.

For example:

• If you are making the first filing for a standard land transaction, you need the online LBTT return process.
• If the transaction is a lease, there is a separate lease return process.
• If a lease needs a later review return, there are distinct instructions depending on whether the user is the tenant or an agent acting through the system.
• If a return has already been filed and something needs corrected, the relevant question is amendment rather than initial submission.
• If too much ADS was paid and the conditions for repayment are met, there is a specific repayment route rather than a general amendment route.
• If the return has been filed but the tax still needs to be settled, the payment guidance is the relevant part.
• If a late filing penalty has been charged, that is dealt with through the penalty payment guidance rather than the tax payment page.

The source also makes clear that access control matters. Filing is not simply about knowing the tax position. The person or firm submitting online must have the right registration and user access.

How to analyse it

A sensible way to approach this section is to ask the following questions in order:

• Is this a standard LBTT return, a lease return, or a lease review return?
• Has the return already been submitted, so that the real issue is amendment rather than first filing?
• Is the issue about repayment of ADS specifically?
• Is the immediate task to pay tax, or to pay a penalty?
• Who is submitting the return: the taxpayer, an organisation, or a tax professional?
• Does the person using the online portal already have the necessary registration and login credentials?

These questions matter because the online process appears to be organised by task and user type. Using the wrong route may delay filing, correction or payment.

Example

Illustration: A company acquires Scottish property and its agent is handling the LBTT compliance. The company cannot simply assume the agent can log in and file immediately. If the organisation or tax professional has not yet registered to submit LBTT returns online, that registration step must happen first. If the organisation is already registered but the individual dealing with the filing does not have their own login, that user must be added in SETS before the return can be submitted.

A different example is a tenant with an existing LBTT lease filing who now needs to deal with a lease review return. The source indicates that the tenant should use the lease review return guidance aimed at tenants, while an agent acting for that tenant should use the separate agent guidance.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The source page is mainly a navigation page, so it does not itself explain the underlying legal triggers for each filing or payment step. That can create confusion.

In practice, the main difficulties are usually:

• working out whether you are dealing with an initial return, an amendment, or a separate repayment claim
• recognising that lease transactions may have their own filing pathway and later review obligations
• distinguishing payment of LBTT from payment of a penalty
• realising that system access and user permissions may need to be set up before any filing can be made

Another practical difficulty is that the correct procedural route does not answer the substantive tax question. For example, the existence of a page for ADS repayment claims does not by itself establish that a repayment is due. It only shows that Revenue Scotland has a separate process for making that kind of claim.

Key takeaways

• Revenue Scotland separates LBTT administration into different online processes for filing, lease filings, lease reviews, amendments, ADS repayment claims, tax payment and penalty payment.
• Organisations and tax professionals must be registered to submit LBTT returns online, and individual users may need to be added through SETS.
• The first practical step is to identify exactly what you need to do: initial return, lease return, lease review, amendment, repayment claim, tax payment or penalty payment.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guidance on Submitting, Amending, and Paying Land and Buildings Transaction Tax

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