Stamp taxes on investments (SDRT)

Stamp Duty Reserve Tax applies to electronic purchases of UK shares, charged at 0.5% of the chargeable consideration — there's no banding or sliding scale, just a flat rate on the full amount paid. Shares admitted to a recognised growth market, such as AIM, are exempt from SDRT entirely, not just at a reduced rate — the exemption applies or it doesn't, with nothing in between. This is a narrow, mechanical tax compared to Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax: there's no allowance to use up first and no rate that depends on the buyer's other income, just the rate applied to the consideration paid, unless the growth-market exemption takes it to zero instead.