RS-0005: claiming back the Additional Dwelling Supplement in Scotland

The Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) is added to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax when a buyer ends the day of a Scottish residential purchase owning more than one dwelling without having replaced their only or main residence. Revenue Scotland’s examples include a buyer whose sale of the old home was delayed while the new purchase went ahead on the planned date. Once the previous main residence is sold within the time allowed, the ADS can be reclaimed. RS-0005 is Revenue Scotland’s ADS repayment claim form, Revision 1.4 (September 2025), and it is the route Revenue Scotland gives to an agent who did not submit the original LBTT return.

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Who uses RS-0005 and who claims another way

Revenue Scotland’s claim page splits ADS repayment claims by who is making them:

• the agent who submitted the original LBTT return amends that return in SETS, the Scottish Electronic Tax System, and uploads the evidence there
• a new agent, one who cannot amend the original return in SETS, completes RS-0005 and emails it to lbtt@revenue.scot
• a buyer claiming without an agent uses the online repayment claim on the Revenue Scotland portal; paper claims sent by post are no longer accepted
• an attorney or guardian acting for a buyer uses a separate repayment form published as a Word document, also emailed to lbtt@revenue.scot

RS-0005 still has a “No agent” option in Section 1 and a buyer’s declaration in Section 8, but the claim page points buyers acting for themselves to the online process. Revenue Scotland’s taxpayer guide for that process (April 2024) says it takes about 5 to 10 minutes, cannot be saved as a draft, and that all buyers should be present when it is completed.

Companies and other non-individuals have no replacement ground to claim on: the technical guidance at LBTT10017 says a non-individual is not regarded as replacing an only or main residence, so ADS applies to each dwelling it buys for £40,000 or more, other than certain trust purchases.

Conditions for getting the ADS back

The repayment rules are in paragraph 8 of schedule 2A to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013. For a purchase with an effective date on or after 1 April 2024, all of these must be met:

• the buyer, or one of joint buyers, disposes of a dwelling within 36 months of the effective date of the purchase on which ADS was paid
• the dwelling disposed of is not the one bought in that transaction
• it was the only or main residence of the buyer, or of one of the joint buyers, at some point in the 36 months ending with the effective date
• the dwelling bought has been occupied as the only or main residence of the buyer, or of all the joint buyers

Where the effective date is on or before 31 March 2024, the window is 18 months, beginning the day after the effective date, and the 18-month look-back applies to the residence test. For those older purchases, Revenue Scotland’s general ADS page says joint buyers can claim if all of them meet all the conditions, with one exception: for spouses, civil partners and cohabitants only one of them needs to have sold, but both must have lived in the old home and must live in the new one. For later purchases the 2024 wording applies: one buyer’s sale and one buyer’s past residence are enough, all buyers must occupy the new home, and where every joint buyer owns another dwelling, all of them must meet the conditions. The worked example at LBTT10070 shows a pre-April 2024 claim failing because the second civil partner had never lived in the old home.

The effective date is generally the date of settlement or completion, according to LBTT10011. Leaving a rented property is not a disposal, since a disposal can only be made of a property the buyer owns.

LBTT10070 says Revenue Scotland has no power to consider exceptional circumstances. It cites the First-tier Tribunal decision MacQuarrie v Revenue Scotland [2024] FTSTC 2: the previous home sold more than three weeks after the deadline because of cladding problems, and the appeal was dismissed.

When to claim: within 12 months or later, up to 5 years

The original LBTT return, with the ADS calculated and paid, is due within 30 days of the effective date. If the previous main residence sells after the effective date but before that return is made, LBTT10050 says the ADS does not need to be paid at all.

Once the ADS has been paid, there are two ways back, and Section 3 of RS-0005 asks which applies:

• within 12 months of the filing date of the original return, the claim is an amendment of that return under section 83 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014
• after that, it is a claim for repayment of overpaid tax under section 107 of the same Act, which LBTT10070 says must be made within 5 years of the tax return due date

Revenue Scotland’s claim page describes a claim made more than 12 months after the filing date as one made more than 12 months after the date the new property was bought, and asks for proof of sale in that case.

How to fill in RS-0005 section by section

RS-0005 is a fillable six-page PDF. Before starting, find the return reference of the original LBTT return; if you do not have it, the form says the agent who submitted the return can give you a copy of the submission receipt, which shows it. Sections that do not apply to the claim can be left blank, but every question marked with an asterisk in a section that does apply has to be answered, and the form warns that omissions may lead to rejection.

Page 3 carries the boxes that tie the claim to the original transaction. In the marked image, 1 and 2 are the return reference and effective date in Section 2, 3 and 4 are the two Section 3 questions, and 5 is buyer 1 in Section 4.

On the amount in Section 7: if Multiple Dwellings Relief was claimed on the purchase, the ADS was worked out on the average consideration, and LBTT10070 says that is the amount that can be reclaimed. Where one purchase included the new main residence and another dwelling, such as a separate holiday cottage, LBTT10016 says the ADS was charged on the extra dwelling’s share of the price. The ADS rate depends on the effective date:

The 6% rate still applies to an effective date on or after 5 December 2024 if the contract was entered into on or before 4 December 2024.

An agent confirms the buyers’ authority twice: in the authority to act statement in Section 1 and in the authority to receive repayment box in Section 7. Page 1 of the form adds that an authorised agent must provide a mandate to act.

Evidence to send with the claim

Page 1 of RS-0005 asks for proof of sale and two items of proof that the buyers lived in the previous home as their main residence at some point in the relevant period. The claim page lists what Revenue Scotland accepts:

• a copy of the disposition of sale
• a copy of the Land Registration documents
• a letter from your solicitor that clearly states the date of sale
• a copy of a Council Tax bill
• a copy of a utilities bill
• a copy of a bank statement

The first three show the sale and the last three show residence. The claim page asks for proof that all buyers occupied the previous home, and the April 2024 taxpayer guide says all relevant buyers, at any time in the 18 or 36 months ending on the date the new main residence was bought. LBTT10070 quotes the tribunal in Crawley v Revenue Scotland [2024] FTSTC 1: occupation alone does not establish residence, and its nature, quality, length and circumstances are weighed.