Capital Gains Tax for Armed Forces

arfajob

Hi,
I am about to sell a property I have owned for 20 yrs. I have lived in it for 8yrs and let it for 12yrs. This is my only property and have let it due to being in the Armed Forces and being on the move all over the country. Can anyone help with the rules on Capital Gains Tax.
Would I have to pay this tax if I sold the property straight after the tenant moves out, or would I have to live in it for a period, before selling to avoid the tax?
Thanks, would appreciate any help on this matter as I seem to get different answers back!! :rotfl:

fengirl_2

The 8 years during which you occupied the house is exempt, as are the final 3 years of ownership, making 11/20th of the gain exempt from CGT. Of the remaining gain, up to £40,000 is exempt as you let it out. Then you also have an annual exemption of £10,100.
If you can give us purchase and sale figures, we can do a worked example.

gt94sss2

Have a look at page 5 ('Job related accommodation') of HS283 (Private Residence Relief)

This basically means that if you were living away from home for job related reasons (i.e. military postings) you are still treated as living in your main house (which you have let) for CGT purposes and can thus also count this period as being exempt for CGT purposes - so potentially exempt for all 20 years.

You may also need to refer to HS202

I'm not an accountant though - so its worth double checking with HMRC quoting the above.

Regards
Sunil

fengirl_2

The job related relief only applies if you lived away from home for 4 years.

Andy_L

I suspect that that's over-ridden by renting it out. If it had been left empty it would count as you main residence.
However page 6 gives some extra "Letting Relief"

gt94sss2

The first part of this Times article may also help clarify things.

Regards
Sunil

arfajob

Thanks for the help,
I now have some links to read!! Hopefully I can make sense of it all.

arfajob

Thanks for taking the time to simplyfy a tricky subject. Every time I research it there seems to be something different to consider. I will contact Cardiff (hopefully) to clarify the detail.

Many thanks