Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT)

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) is a property tax in Scotland. It replaced the Stamp Duty Land Tax from 1 April 2015.

LBTT is a tax applied to residential and commercial land and buildings transactions (including commercial purchases and commercial leases) where a chargeable interest is acquired. Under the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013, a land transaction must be notified to Revenue Scotland. 

Since leases often continue over a period of years and can be subject to change through, for example, variations, extensions, assignations, rent reviews and tacit relocation; therefore, the tax position must be reviewed to give effect to these changes.

The LBTT legislation does not require a further LBTT return to be submitted to Revenue Scotland every time a change to the lease takes place. Instead, it requires that, unless the lease has been terminated or assigned, a further LBTT return must be submitted by the tenant at every third anniversary of the effective date (completion date) of the lease (i.e. year 3, year 6, year 9 etc.) and any additional LBTT paid or overpaid LBTT reclaimed.

Once you have contacted us and we have agreed to act on your behalf we will sent you an agent authorisation form. You will need to complete the form and email it back. We will send this document to Revenue Scotland to inform them that you have appointed us as your agent.

We will send you a second form confirming some personal details. You will need to send this back with a copy of your lease agreement.

Once we have this information we will file your return with Revenue Scotland and issue you with a submission receipt we receive from Revenue Scotland.