Improving a BTL before selling it (?)

BoGoF

GDB2222 wrote: »

My experience is that buyers underestimate the cost of doing a place up, or they value the opportunity to do their own thing. So, even if a place needs a new £5k kitchen, they'll only knock say £2k off what they offer. Providing it's liveable in for the time being.

Capital gains tax is levied on your gain. If you are liable at the 28% rate, spending say £10k will reduce the tax by 28% of £10k, ie £2800.

You of course meant to say "spending say £10k on allowable capital expenditure"

Slithery

GDB2222 wrote: »

Slithery unfortunately mistyped his advice. What he meant to say was that you are unlikely to get back your expenditure on improvements. As a general rule I agree.

Oops, so I did. Have corrected my post.

GDB2222

BoGoF wrote: »

You of course meant to say "spending say £10k on allowable capital expenditure"

Indeed. Hopefully nobody will notice.

00ec25

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

OP - A quick google on other forums will tell you that there is no clear cut answer to your question.

I would recommend asking the question on propertyhub forum or landlordzone as there are more professional landlords there who will have come across similar situations and might be able to provide more relevant advice.

that is akin to saying if you want advice on mortgages ask an estate agent as they have some awareness of houses, but ignore the qualified IFA who knows the market and the products on it

just because a LL has "got away with" and recounts their experience of having not (yet) been challenged by HMRC, does not alter tax law.
Nor will it alter the advice from a qualified accountant / chartered tax adviser on what constitutes capital expenditure for a let property after the letting has ended when working out costs to deduct in a CGT calculation.