Capital Gains Tax on house we're about to exchange on

MartinW6

@Jeremy535897 thank you once again.  

When you say "chargeable gain about £12,000 (within annual exemption)" does that mean, in the case of the example you gave (which isn't far off the actual figures), there would be no CGT to pay, i.e. the allowance covers it?

My other concern, which you've covered, was that HMRC recognise that it was my mother's main residence for 37 out of 41 years (we actually lived in the US for 2 years back in the 80s).  My worry was that mum would have to pay CGT between the gain from 82 to 2023, but I've read up on PPR and realise that's not the case.

Jeremy535897

If your mother has no other gains, and the actual figures result in a gain of £12,300 or less, then the gain is covered by her annual exemption, and that means no tax to pay. Periods of absence totalling up to three years for any reason may be ignored, so long as the property was occupied as a main residence before and after any such absence. There is a quite narrowly defined rule applicable to long term residents of care homes or for disabled people as defined in schedule 1A FA 2005, but I assume that is not relevant here. The best place for straightforward information is https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-residence-relief-hs283-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs283-private-residence-relief-2022