LTT scams: misleading websites, emails and phone numbers
LTT scams and misleading messages
Messages about Land Transaction Tax can look official while directing you to a false service or payment route.
- Scams may offer support or refunds.
- They may demand tax said to be due.
- Use GOV.WALES to find WRA services.
- Do not click suspicious email or text links.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
LTT scams: misleading websites, emails and phone numbers
A fake message about Land Transaction Tax (LTT), Wales’s version of stamp duty, can look official. It may promise money, offer help or demand tax. Do not open suspicious emails or texts. Do not click their links.
What this rule is about
The Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) provides this safety guidance. It warns that some websites, emails and phone numbers are made to look like government services, or to offer more help than they really provide.
The message is intended to misdirect you, perhaps towards a false website, a payment request, or an alternative contact route instead. A professional-looking message is not proof that it is real.
What the official source says
The WRA says scammers may contact taxpayers by text, email or phone while pretending to deal with tax matters. For information and services, it directs people to GOV.WALES.
- A scam may appear to offer financial support.
- A scam may claim that you are due a tax refund.
- A scam may demand tax that it says you owe.
- A suspicious email or text should not be opened.
- You should not click links in a suspicious email or text.
What this means in practice
Do not treat an unexpected link as a safe route to the WRA, even if the message mentions LTT or stamp duty. Instead, find the WRA website yourself through GOV.WALES.
That small change matters. You choose the website and service yourself. Do not let a message choose them.
- Type or search for GOV.WALES yourself.
- Start from the Welsh Revenue Authority pages on that site.
- Be careful where a message offers money or demands urgent payment.
- Do not rely on an official-looking name, number or web page alone.
How to analyse it
Ask one question first: did you find the contact route independently, or did an unexpected message send you there? If the message brought you to it, pause before doing anything.
- Check whether the contact is a text, email, phone call or website.
- Identify its request: claim money, give details, or pay.
- Do not open links in a suspicious email or text.
- Use GOV.WALES to find the WRA information or service instead.
Example
Maya receives a text that says she has an LTT refund and directs her to use a link to claim it. The message may look genuine, but do not click a suspicious text link. Maya should search GOV.WALES herself for the Welsh Revenue Authority. She should not use the link.
Why this can be difficult in practice
These contacts are designed to seem convincing. They may use familiar tax words and offer something people want, such as a refund, or something they fear, such as an unpaid tax bill.
Official-looking messages are not automatically safe. The source gives a safer starting point, which is finding WRA services through GOV.WALES.
- A refund offer can make a link seem worth opening.
- A demand for tax can make people feel rushed.
- No full genuineness checklist appears in the source.
Key takeaways
- Unexpected LTT messages can be misleading.
- Do not open or click suspicious email or text links.
- Find WRA services through GOV.WALES instead.
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.
Official guidance
The pages below are the Welsh Revenue Authority’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how the Welsh Revenue Authority 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. the Welsh Revenue Authority can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
Where this is not settled
- A message can look convincing, so its appearance alone does not show whether it is genuine.
- The source does not say how to verify a particular phone call, email address or payment request.
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.
- Keep the message, email, website address or phone number if you need to check what prompted concern.
- Use the WRA pages on GOV.WALES to find the information or service you need, rather than a link in a suspicious message.
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 Land Transaction Tax (LTT), the tax on property in Wales. It replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales on 1 April 2018, and SDLT does not apply in Wales. MY QUESTION LTT scams: misleading websites, emails and phone numbers [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.] Guidance page from the Welsh Revenue Authority on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.wales/welsh-revenue-authority-tax-related-phishing-and-scams#12949 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. Guidance from the Welsh Revenue Authority is its 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 - A message can look convincing, so its appearance alone does not show whether it is genuine. - The source does not say how to verify a particular phone call, email address or payment request. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 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 3 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: LTT scams: misleading websites, emails and phone numbers
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