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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

CGT for expat returning to the UK

chocaholic
Posts:22
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:26 pm
CGT for expat returning to the UK

Postby chocaholic » Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:52 pm

Hi there,
I have been out of the uk for 18 years. I have a UK property that I would like to sell. I was hoping of taking advantage of the fact that only gains since 2015 would be taxed.
Sadly it appears that I will be back in the UK before I sell.
If I were to sell the house as soon as I return to the UK would CGT be payable on all the gains? Is there a way around it?

Thanks

AGoodman
Posts:1738
Joined:Fri May 16, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: CGT for expat returning to the UK

Postby AGoodman » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:28 pm

Yes, once resident, you are liable for all the gains.

The only thing you could do would be to rebase the property before you return (in a prior tax year) by e.g. selling to a company or giving to a trust. The former will incur SDLT. A gift to a trust will only work for properties below £325k as above that you will have to pay 20% IHT.

A rebase will basically be a sale before you return, just to a connected party which then later sells on.

chocaholic
Posts:22
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:26 pm

Re: CGT for expat returning to the UK

Postby chocaholic » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:55 pm

If I were to return in January and sell the house before April the 1st, would I still incur a CGT ? In the tax year 21/22 I will have only been in the UK for about 3 months.

darthblingbling
Posts:698
Joined:Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:09 pm

Re: CGT for expat returning to the UK

Postby darthblingbling » Fri Dec 03, 2021 7:51 am

If you are resident under the srt rules, including split year cases then yes.

Have you calculated the gain under each scenario, would the saving warrant staying out of the UK a little longer? I know there may be factors beyond tax driving this.


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