Selling my house abroad and bringing the money over to the UK

nmqpifo

Hello,

I am originally from South America but I have been living in the UK since 2003 (always as a tax payer with resident status). I have kept my house back home until June last year, when I finally decided to sell and I sent the money to my bank account in the UK (around £70k, yes property is cheap over there!)

My questions are, if anyone can help me:

- Do I need to declare this money and how to do it? (I would like to in fact, to justify where it came from in case someone asks!)

- Do I need to pay tax on it? I read that you don't have to pay tax when you sell your own home but based on my unusual circumstances I am not sure about it. It is hard to tell how much capital gain I made as I built my house myself (not literally, but I bought the land and had builders to work for me). In fact I think I lost some money as I spent a lot on it but didn't sell it for a very good price anyway...

I looked at the HRMC website, it is useful but quite confusing at times. Any advice will be more than welcome!

By the way, I don't have a house in the UK, if it makes any difference...

Thanks!
Luis

bendix

You dont need to declare it, and you don't need to pay tax on it.

nmqpifo

Hi bendix

bendix wrote: »

You dont need to declare it, and you don't need to pay tax on it.

Many thanks for your quick and straight-to-the-point reply! But if you don't mind can you elaborate a little bit please, or provide some links where I can read about the subject?

I am asking because I know people that had to pay tax when selling their property abroad and I would like to understand why in my case I don't have to.

Thanks
Luis

BritRael

Even if you had owned and sold this property in the UK, CGT would not be payable as it was your main residence. CGT is payable on gains that you make on sales of 'extra' properties that you own (additional to your main residence). As you don't have any, there's nothing to pay