Paying stamp duty on share transfers

Stamp Duty is paid on shares bought on a stock transfer form. A stock transfer form is the standard form used for transfers of shares from one person to another. If you use a stock transfer to buy stocks and shares for £1,000 or less, you do not normally have to pay any Stamp Duty.

The 300-year-old process used to manually stamp documents to show the duty has been paid, came to an end on 19 July 2021. A new electronic process was introduced during the pandemic as traditional physical stamping could not function under COVID-19 restrictions. As this process has worked well, HMRC has decided to retain the new approach. This requires 

The stamp duty must be paid and HMRC notified within 30 days of the document being dated and signed. If the deadline is missed, you may have to pay penalties and / or interest.

Once the Stamp Duty has been paid, HMRC should be notified by email. The email should be sent to stampdutymailbox@hmrc.gov.uk.

The email should include:

• the payment reference;
• the payment amount;
• the date of payment;
• an electronic copy (for example, a scanned PDF) of either the signed and dated stock transfer form, instrument of transfer or form SH03 for return of purchase of own shares.

Note Stamp Duty is not the same as paying Stamp Duty Reserve Tax, which is paid on the paperless purchase of shares.