Guide to Amending Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Returns

Amending an LBTT Return After Submission

An LBTT return can usually be amended only within 12 months of its filing date, which is the legal due date rather than the date it was actually submitted. Most corrections can be made within that period, but some cases need a different route, such as filing a new return, asking Revenue Scotland to disregard a return, or making a repayment claim if too much tax was paid after the amendment window has closed.

• The 12-month time limit runs from the filing date, usually 30 days after the effective date in a standard property purchase, not from the submission date.
• Revenue Scotland does not accept amendments by phone; online returns are usually amended online, while paper returns or inaccessible online returns can be amended by email.
• Most fields can be corrected, but the “About the return” field cannot be changed, so a conveyance return cannot simply be turned into a lease return or vice versa.
• If an amendment increases the tax due, the extra tax must be paid and interest will normally run from the filing date until payment; if tax is reduced, a repayment may be due.
• If the return was filed by mistake because the transaction was non-notifiable, or the same return was filed twice, you may need to ask Revenue Scotland in writing to disregard the return instead of amending it.
• After the amendment period ends, amendment requests are normally rejected, but overpayment claims may still be possible within five years and underpaid tax should still be disclosed to Revenue Scotland.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

How to amend an LBTT return after it has been submitted

This page explains when an LBTT return can be amended, how to do it, and what happens if the change means more tax is due or a repayment is due. It also explains an important limit: in most cases, you cannot amend a return more than 12 months after its filing date.

What this rule is about

Once a Land and Buildings Transaction Tax return has been submitted, mistakes sometimes come to light. A figure may be wrong, a date may need correcting, or the tax calculation may need to change.

Revenue Scotland allows amendments, but only within a defined statutory time limit. The guidance also distinguishes between three different situations:

• amending a return within the normal amendment window,
• asking Revenue Scotland to disregard a return altogether in limited cases, and
• dealing with overpayments or underpayments discovered after the amendment window has closed.

This matters because the route you use affects whether Revenue Scotland can accept the change, whether tax or interest becomes payable, and whether a repayment can still be claimed.

What the official source says

The guidance says that an LBTT return may be amended within 12 months of the filing date. This reflects section 83 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014.

The filing date is defined by section 82 of that Act. It is not the date the return was actually submitted. It is the date by which the return had to be made. In a standard house purchase, that is 30 days beginning with the day after the effective date of the transaction, although different filing dates can apply for other land transactions.

The guidance also says:

• Revenue Scotland does not accept amendments by phone.
• Most fields can be amended, but the “About the return” field cannot. So a return submitted as a conveyance or transfer cannot later be changed into a lease return, and vice versa.
• If that field needs to change, a new LBTT return must be made and Revenue Scotland must also be contacted.
• If the amendment window has expired, Revenue Scotland says it will reject amendment requests received after the 12-month period.
• If tax has been overpaid, a repayment claim may still be possible within five years of the filing date, subject to the statutory rules on claims and Revenue Scotland’s power to refuse in some circumstances.
• If tax has been underpaid and the error is discovered outside the amendment period, Revenue Scotland says it should still be contacted.

The guidance separately explains when a return may be disregarded rather than amended. That is limited to cases where:

• the transaction was non-notifiable and a return was made in error, or
• a duplicate return was submitted by mistake.

Requests for a return to be disregarded must be made in writing, with supporting information or documents.

What this means in practice

The first question is timing. If you are still within 12 months of the filing date, an amendment is usually the normal route. If you are outside that period, the position changes significantly.

Within the amendment window:

• an online return can usually be amended through the online system if you still have access to it,
• a paper return, or an online return you can no longer access, can be amended by email to Revenue Scotland, and
• you should identify each field to be changed, the current entry, and the corrected entry.

If the amendment increases the tax due, the additional tax must be paid under the normal payment rules. The guidance also says interest is payable on that extra tax from the filing date until payment is made. Revenue Scotland administers that interest separately, so it should not be added into the tax figure on the return itself.

If the amendment reduces the tax due, Revenue Scotland says it will repay the excess with interest, referring to its separate guidance on repayment interest.

If you are amending solely to claim repayment of Additional Dwelling Supplement, the guidance says not to use the normal amendment process. A separate ADS repayment process applies.

If the issue is not that the return needs correcting, but that the return should never have been made at all, or the same return was filed twice, the correct route may be to ask Revenue Scotland to disregard the return rather than amend it.

How to analyse it

A sensible way to approach the issue is to work through the following questions.

• What exactly is wrong with the return? Is it a factual error, a tax calculation error, a duplicate filing, or a return that should not have been filed at all?
• Are you still within 12 months of the filing date? Remember that the filing date is the statutory due date, not necessarily the date you actually submitted the return.
• Does the change affect the “About the return” field? If so, the return cannot simply be amended in the usual way.
• Was the original return filed online and do you still have access to it? If not, email may be needed instead.
• Will the correction increase tax, reduce tax, or leave the tax unchanged?
• If more tax is due, has payment been arranged and has interest been considered separately?
• If less tax is due, is this a normal amendment within time, or has the amendment window expired so that a repayment claim may need to be considered instead?
• If the return was filed in error because the transaction was non-notifiable, or because the return duplicated another one, is a disregard request more appropriate than an amendment?

For paper returns, or online returns you can no longer access, the guidance says the email should quote the return reference number and specify each field being changed, the current entry, and the replacement entry. That is important because Revenue Scotland is not being asked to infer what you meant; it needs a clear field-by-field correction.

Example

A buyer submits an LBTT return for a standard purchase. Later, within 12 months of the filing date, their agent realises that the chargeable consideration was entered incorrectly and the tax should have been higher.

In that case, the return can usually be amended. The additional LBTT must be paid, and interest will run on that extra tax from the filing date until payment. The interest is not added into the return figure itself; Revenue Scotland deals with that separately.

By contrast, suppose a return was submitted for a transaction that turned out not to be notifiable at all. That may not be an amendment case. It may be a case for asking Revenue Scotland to disregard the return, with documents showing why the transaction was non-notifiable.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The main difficulty is that several different concepts are easy to confuse.

First, the 12-month amendment limit runs from the filing date, which is a defined legal date. People often assume the clock runs from the submission date, but the guidance points instead to the statutory due date for the return.

Second, not every problem is solved by an amendment. If the return was fundamentally the wrong type of return, or should not have been filed at all, the correct route may be a new return plus contact with Revenue Scotland, or a disregard request.

Third, an expired amendment window does not necessarily mean nothing can be done. The guidance distinguishes between amendments, repayment claims for overpaid tax, and disclosure of underpaid tax. Those are different mechanisms with different time limits and consequences.

Fourth, the guidance notes that an amended return containing an inaccuracy may expose the person on whose behalf it is made to a penalty. Correcting a return is often necessary, but it does not erase the possibility of inaccuracy penalties if the statutory conditions are met.

Finally, the online process itself contains at least one acknowledged system issue. The guidance says the online question “How are you paying” appears in the amendment journey in error and is due to be fixed. That means users should focus on the substance of the declarations and payment consequences rather than assuming every on-screen prompt reflects a separate legal requirement.

Key takeaways

• An LBTT return can normally be amended only within 12 months of its filing date, meaning the statutory due date for the return.
• Most fields can be changed, but the “About the return” field cannot be amended in the normal way.
• If an amendment increases tax, extra tax and interest may be due; if it reduces tax, a repayment may be available, and different rules apply once the amendment window has closed.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guide to Amending Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Returns

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