Emma Richardson, MRICS

Emma Richardson is a RICS-qualified Chartered Surveyor with more than 12 years of experience in UK property taxation. She founded Calculate My Stamp Duty UK to help buyers understand the real cost of moving home, from the headline stamp duty figure to the reliefs and surcharges that quietly change the final bill.

Her background is in residential and commercial property valuation. Over her career she has advised clients on transactions worth more than £500 million, working across the three UK systems: Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland, and Land Transaction Tax in Wales.

During that time Emma saw the same problem again and again. Buyers were confident about their deposit and their mortgage, but genuinely unsure what they would owe in tax, especially when first-time buyer relief, the additional property surcharge or a company purchase was involved. The questions she answered in person are the exact questions this site was built to answer.

"Property tax should not be a mystery," says Emma. "I built this calculator so anyone can see exactly what they will pay, whether it is their first flat or their tenth investment property, before they ever speak to a solicitor."

Today Emma leads the research behind every calculator and guide on the site. Each figure is cross-referenced against HMRC guidance, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority, and reviewed whenever the rules change. When she is not updating rate tables, she writes about how stamp duty policy affects first-time buyers, landlords and the wider housing market.