psst ... someone just bought a buy to let empire

mwpt

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

If I were chuck, I'd move into each one for six months and sell them as my main home free of tax. It's just 3 years out of my (retired?) life and I could probably do a bit of work on them while there to maximise the sale price, while eliminating the sales tax.

A person could really do this? I thought the 6 month thing meant any period you did not live in the property greater than 6 months, had to be declared for CGT.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

The best rental experience I had was with a flat owned by a commercial company. There was a 24 hour helpline to report issues, a central furniture warehouse so you could be flexible with full/part furnished options, and a proper paper trail for everything. It was reassuring dealing with slick professionals after all the amateur idiots out there.

wotsthat

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

If I were chuck, I'd move into each one for six months and sell them as my main home free of tax. It's just 3 years out of my (retired?) life and I could probably do a bit of work on them while there to maximise the sale price, while eliminating the sales tax.

They wouldn't be free of CGT. If they sold their main residence there's no CGT. Moving into one of the BTL's doesn't give full relief from CGT - only 18 months.

Worthwhile if you're a recent purchaser in London and seen some quick gains. Less so if you've held for 20 years because you'd still be liable for CGT on 92.5% of the gain.

wotsthat

mwpt wrote: »

A person could really do this? I thought the 6 month thing meant any period you did not live in the property greater than 6 months, had to be declared for CGT.

AIUI there isn't a 6 month anything. If you sell a house and want to claim PPR you have to be able to prove it is/ was your main residence. If you can prove this you'll get at least 18 months PPR.

6 months seems to be a rule of thumb to demonstrate main residency status rather than something legislated.

Aberdeenangarse

Good old Fungus. He put those idiots from HPC in their place. TheCountOfNowhere and Bruce Banner couldn't even afford a shed at one of his (now ex) Properties. I may be dim, but I've also got a nice BTL portfolio that's me Pension. No mortgages either!

Comments section :rotfl:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-business/county-news/property-tycoons-sell-up-47609/

westernpromise

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

If I were chuck, I'd move into each one for six months and sell them as my main home free of tax. It's just 3 years out of my (retired?) life and I could probably do a bit of work on them while there to maximise the sale price, while eliminating the sales tax.

Nothing in the stamp duty structuring that's possible stops him doing that as well, of course.

I am not persuaded it works, though - has anyone tried this?

westernpromise

Aberdeenangarse wrote: »

Comments section :rotfl:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-business/county-news/property-tycoons-sell-up-47609/

I'd be sorry for people like that were they not so transparently, malevolently envious.

chucknorris

westernpromise wrote: »

If you were selling 8 or 9 properties like that, packaging them as one deal would effectively get your buyer one of them for free versus buying them one at a time from individual sellers and paying the residential stamp duty rate on each.

This is, I guess, how corporates will look to assemble lettable portfolios at minimal stamp duty cost: more than seven at a time.

Chuck I think has 6? If so, and if I were in his shoes, I would look at buying one more before April next year. When it comes to selling, it might be that having seven to sell makes the stamp duty a bit cheaper and hence enables the buyer to pay him a little more - although there is a breakeven / crossover point of course.

Thanks. We've got 8, but only 4 in my name (plus another one that I bought with my wife, she also has 3 just in her name). Whilst we might put them in joint names for disposal, the decision to sell is down to who owns them, my wife wants to hang on to hers. So I have up to 4 to sell, at the moment I am likely to only sell 2 or 3 of those, because I do want to maintain portfolio diversity. Although it would be great news for Wotsthat if I sold everything and stuck the equity into equities, because I just know the following week it would crash or at least take a big dip, creating a nice buying opportunity for everyone except me.

chucknorris

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

If I were chuck, I'd move into each one for six months and sell them as my main home free of tax. It's just 3 years out of my (retired?) life and I could probably do a bit of work on them while there to maximise the sale price, while eliminating the sales tax.

As I mentioned above, only 4 of the 8 are in my name (plus one jointly owned with my wife). I have already lived in 3 of them, I did plan to live in the fourth one too, but when I met my wife other factors came into play, and I didn't get around to living there. We still might live there at some point (I'll be hanging onto that one).

chucknorris

wotsthat wrote: »

They wouldn't be free of CGT. If they sold their main residence there's no CGT. Moving into one of the BTL's doesn't give full relief from CGT - only 18 months.

Worthwhile if you're a recent purchaser in London and seen some quick gains. Less so if you've held for 20 years because you'd still be liable for CGT on 92.5% of the gain.

In addition to the 18 months, you do get to pro rata your time living there to reduce your CGT bill, and in addition to that I am also eligible for the full £40k letting relief too (because I have lived in them) for 3 of my 4 solely owned properties. I've lived in the properties for a total time of about 12 years.