Capital Gains tax on previous home i lived in then let out

Hi, Me and my wife are thinking of selling a home we own, which we brought on 31st October 2008. We lived in this house as our main residential home until we brought another house which we moved into on 1st December 2015. We have now rented this house out to a private tenant from the 1st December 2015 until now. If we do sell this house, can we claim Private Residence Relief for the time we lived in this house as our main residence and take this off the capital gains tax? (from 31/10/08 till 01/12/15) If so do we add an extra 9 months relief to the end of ownership term? We both do our own tax self assessments online each year. Would we just just split the capital gains house sale on our self assessment 50/50 as well? Thanks Richard

Hi rstubbs10,
As this property was you main residence, you can claim Private Residence Relief for the number of months that the property was your main residence.
Please also add a further 9 months to this figure.
You should then work out the number of months that you owned the property.
This will give you the fraction number of months main residence over the number of months owned.
Please have a look at the guidance here:
HS283 Private Residence Relief (2024) As you are married, the default split on jointly owned property is 50/50.
There is a calculator here:
Tax when you sell property
To help you both work out your capital gains.
You can also create a capital gain account each and report and pay your Capital Gains Tax liability.
Please note that you have 60 days from the completion date to report and pay your Capital Gains Tax.
Thank you. 

 

Dear HMRC or anyone else who can help, Please could you provide clarity on this similar situation: We bought a flat for £300k in 1997 and it was my PPR until Dec 2014 when we relocated to Scotland and bought a house. It has been rented ever since then, but the value of the property has remained static at circa £1.3Mil for the past 10 years. Question: Will our CGT liability be zero if we sell the flat now, based on the fact that the value has not changed over the 10 years since we gave it up as our PPR? Or will we need to pay CGT based on 10/27 of the total £1mil gain since initial purchase in 1997? I am very much hoping the former will be the case, as we have a valuation for circa £1.3 Mil from 2014 when we were deciding whether to sell it or keep it for rental. With Many Thanks if you can help clarify our CGT reporting options, PHP

Hi ,
 

The gain is based on the intial purchase price and not the revaluation for when you started to rent it out and as such you will need to use the 300k figure. You can then claim the PRR  relief for the period you lived in it . Thank you .

I have an additional aspect to this thread. I bought my main residence in 2000, lived in it until May 2014 when I began renting it out until April 2024. I left the UK in Nov 2022 and returned in May 2024 where I have since returned to my main residence. I am now selling it. When do I pay CGT from? Is it from May 2014 - Nov 2022 or May 2014- May 2024. Do I add the 9 months on from May 2024 or from now? Many thanks

Hi,
You can see the guidance on Private Residence Relief, which includes how you work this out, here:
HS283 Private Residence Relief (2024)
There is no capital gains for the period that the property was your main residence. There is a capital gains calculator, which leads on to the capital gains service, where you report and pay the Capital Gains Tax here:
Tax when you sell your home
Thank you.

Good evening I purchased a home in 2001 and lived in it with my wife /family for 4 years . I extended the property / renovated also. We then rented the property for the period up until 2022 when we were having marriage problems . My ex wife (divorced 2022) now . The property is in my name and I’m wanting to transfer this to my exwife as it is now her home .i have been renovating the property over the last year to bring it up to a satisfactory level . 1. Can I claim against cgt for initial improvement's/ extensions from all those years ago 2. Can I claim against cgt for recent improvements 3. We didn’t get a financial divorce order when we divorced in 2022 so transferring an asset that we had rented is there any relief on CGT as this is now her home. As part of our agreed settlement . She will also get part of the value of the family home too. Seems a very confusing situation . Solicitors don’t seem too interested in giving definitive advice as neither accountants as it’s a crossover / ambiguous to their normal roles

Hi,
You can see guidance here:
Capital Gains Tax - separation and divorce 
CG15180 - Expenditure: enhancement expenditure
Thank you.

Please can you help? We purchased our home in 2006 for £485000, but in 2012, we went abroad as missionaries; we were still ordinarily resident and paid taxes in the UK. We rented our home for this time. In 2016 we moved back to the UK, but we had to move as my wife got a job in another city. We had to rent there for a year but then purchased another house. We sold this two years later as my wife (and I) were asked to move into a tied apartment as part of her job. We have always intended to keep our original house as this was our home, but now we need to sell it. I am hoping that for the 18 years, we have had the house, we can claim it as our main residence for 16 years (as the other place was our main home for two years). Can you advise us please?

Hi,
Please refer to the following guidance:
HS283 Private Residence Relief (2024)
Thank you.

My wife and I bought a flat for £13000 16 years ago.my granny lived in it for 2 years then she had to go into a retirement home.we let the flat out for 14 years.we are living in a bungalow which is too big for us and we hope to move into the flat.If we move into the flat for 10 years and then sold it how much capital gains tax would we have to pay.The flat is now worth £85000

Hi Jamesgr George,
HMRC cannot comment on future events as legislation and/or plans may change.
Thank you. 

Please can you clarify... We bought a house and have recently sold it having owned it for 15 years. We have always lived in it as our main residence but have rented 25% of it out as an Airbnb but this was only for 3.5years. Do I need to calculate any PRR based on 100% for 11.5year and 75% of 3.5% and then also deduct lettings relief?

Hi Melissa,
Please refer to: 
HS283 Private Residence Relief (2025).
Thank you.

Thank you - however I had read this help sheet already and wanted clarification as my situations is not clearly covered by the examples as they assume partial renting for the whole period of ownership.

Dear HMRC Admin team We have just sold a leasehold flat and as an essential part of the sale we had to purchase a leasehold pack for information for the seller about the building from the managing agent company. This is a standard part of selling a leasehold flat and is dealt with by the conveyancing team of the managing agent company. Is the cost of the leasehold information pack on selling and the searches required on purchase tax deductible for CGT? The sole purpose of these are for selling or buying the flat. The HMRC webpages did not make this clear.

Hi ,
 

Please refer to : CG15250 - Expenditure: incidental costs of acquisition and disposal  .

Thank you .

Hi HMRC, I was hoping you could help, I’ve owned my home and lived in it for 4 years before moving overseas. During my time overseas I’ve rented the property out for approximately 1 year and was considering selling this property. If I was to sell this property would I be liable for CGT and if so would I be able claim some form of relief as it has been my primary residence for 4 years? Thanks, 

Name removed admin .

Hi! I am trying to figure out the capital gains tax implications on selling a property that I have owned and lived in for a while and then let out. I have read the thread here and understand the calculations ref purchase costs vers. purchase expenditure. My question is as follows: The house I am trying to sell used to be split into two flats. I first bought the ground floor flat and lived in it. I then bought the other flat a few years later and renovated the property back into one combined house. A few years later I moved out and have let the place as one house since then. How do I calculate the ownership/residency relief in months considering I only owned part of what is now one dwelling for some of that time? Does the conversion cost from 2 flats to 1 dwelling count against the capital gain even though I was still living there at the time? Do all of the solicitor's fees involved in changing the titles count as expenditure against the capital gain? Thank you very much for your assistance!

Not HMRC...Peter for CGT you are still regarded as temporarily non resident...you have to be abroad for more than 5 years (so 6) and no more than 4 of 7 UK to escape UK CGT Temporary non-residents and Capital Gains Tax (Self Assessment helpsheet HS278) and that doesnt apply on UK property, that remains liable, forever...so you need to determine what releifs you can claim (or not)...I interpret 1 year of 5 liable (but youd need to work it out monthly) and can claim final 9 months....and as selling a non resident you have other options hWork out your tax if you're a non-resident selling UK property or land (though 2015 value clearly not approriate as wasnt owned then)