No gains – No tax. Typical Treasury Twittery
Sunday 20th February 2022
The introduction of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for non-resident owners of UK properties in April 2015, stopped dead the upward trajectory of property values in Central London
Ironically, it was the introduction of this new CGT which prevented the gains, on which the HMRC might have collected the tax! No gains – No tax. Typical Treasury Twittery.
Seven years later, if I were a non-resident owner, considering selling my London property, I could console myself that even though I had made little gain since April 2015, at least there would be no tax to pay on selling.
The April 2015 date is the CGT benchmark date for non-resident owners. If there had been gains prior to that date they are baked in and not taxed.
I did CGT benchmark assessments for nearly all our non-resident clients in 2015. For some clients, that really paid off.
For example, we sold a property recently which the overseas client who bought it in 2001. He made a gain in value of 178% in the twenty years ownership.
We had a retrospective valuation done to April 2015, and it transpired the value had plateaued since then to now. All the gain was in the years up to April 2015.
So as a non-resident seller, that gain to April 2015 was baked-in and no CGT was payable when he sold. 178% tax free - not bad !!
Let me know if you would like an up-to-date market appraisal, to help assess your gain since April 2015 or from when you bought. patrick@stanleypropertylondon.co.uk
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