Capital Gains Tax for UK property sales from 6 April 2020

Principal Private Residence Relief Changes

From 6 April 2020 tax relief will only be provided for the final 9 months of ownership therefore halving the relief (for the year to 5 April 2020 the final period relief was 18 months).

Filing returns and payment deadline

From 6 April 2020, if you’re a UK resident and sell a residential property in the UK you’ll have 30 days to tell HMRC and pay any Capital Gains Tax owed.

If you don’t tell HMRC about any Capital Gains Tax within 30 days of completion, you may be sent a penalty as well as having to pay interest on what you owe – so it’s really important that everyone involved in the sale of a residential property fully understands these changes, which affect both UK and non-UK residents.

You won’t have to make a report and make a payment within 30 days when:

• a legally binding contract for the sale was made before 6 April 2020
• you meet the criteria for full Private Residence Relief
• the sale or disposal was made to a spouse or civil partner
• the gains (including any other chargeable residential property gains in the same tax year) are within your tax free allowance (called the Annual Exempt Amount)
• you sold the property for a loss
• the property is outside the UK

If you need to file a report with details of capital gains from 6 April 2020, the following information is needed;

• property address and postcode
• date you got the property
• date you exchanged contracts when you were selling or disposing of the property
• date you stopped being the property’s owner (completion date)
• value of the property when you got it
• value of the property when you sold or disposed of it
• costs of buying, selling or making improvements to the property
• details of any tax reliefs, allowances or exemptions you’re entitled to claim
• property type, if you’re a non-resident

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Paying tax bills

From 13 January 2018, HMRC will no longer be accepting payments from personal credit cards to pay tax liabilities. This will include payments for personal tax liabilities, VAT, and PAYE.

That means that if you are planning on settling your personal tax liability that is due by 31 January 2018 and was planning on using a credit card, you will need to make payment before 13 January 2018. If you are self-employed, you should assess your finances now to consider how you are going to pay any tax liability that is due by 31 January 2018.

The rule changes have come in due to EU restrictions which prohibits merchant fees being recharged to payers. HMRC cannot currently take payments at a cost to the public finances, so this will mean they are no longer able to accept credit card payments.