Do I pay Capital Gains Tax?!?

Stevros_2

Hello,
I wonder if anybody could offer advice about the following query please? In the last tax year I disposed of a property and I am concerned now about whether or not I need to pay capital gains tax on the profit made.
In July 2007 I sold a property which was bought using an interest only joint mortgage with my wife.
We had owned this property since June 2002. In this time we have twice lived abroad and the dates are as follows:

• June 2002 – Nov 2002 – in Brighton property (5 months)
• Nov 2002 – June 2003 – rented property out whilst travelling around Australia (6 months)
• June – August 2004 – back in Brighton property (14 months)
• August 2004 – July 2006 – rented property out whilst working in Singapore (23 months)
• July 2006 – July 2007 – lived in Brighton property until we sold it (12 months)

We bought the property for £118,000 in June 2002 and sold it in July 2007 for £185,000.

So in total we have spent 31 months in the property and 29 months renting it out. The big question is – do we need to pay capital gains tax (really hope not) and if so then roughly how much? I have looked at the CGT area of HMRC but it is pretty confusing and I am none the wiser.

My income for 2007 – 2008 was £36,000. My wife’s income was £1000 for the whole year because she has been at home looking after our baby and had a spot of freelance work before he came along. :rotfl:

Any help/advice is MUCH appreciated!

Thanks,
Stevros