britishbull

Can you still be resident in the UK if you become resident in Portugal or Spain (I plan on about eight months in EU apartment and four months in UK house at the moment). I want to be resident in EU pre-Brexit to get those rights but also want to be resident in UK until 2020 so I avoid capital gains on UK house sale (when it should peak price-wise and hopefully Sterling will recover). Do either Portugal or Spain apply capital gains to UK house sale?

Shanorme

It's one or the other.

Loafing Along

Have to make a choice.

Ukkram

You cannot be tax resident in 2 countries at the same time. You also cannot have 2 primary properties.
If the DTA does not clarify your residency then you have to consult the domestic laws of the 2 countries. Chances are almost 100% that both will give you residency of each other.
Now you will have to consult the tie-breaker test.
Such clauses typically have a hierarchy of three to five tests for resolving multiple residency, typically including permanent abode as a major factor. Where you have your "center of life" is another.

If this cannot resolve the residency problem then the 2 tax authorities must come to an agreement on your status.

CGT on immovable property is normally only payable to the country where it is situated but consult the DTA as primary property tax differs from tax on a second home.

mfesharne

As has been said it's one or the other but assuming you have a UK passport I'd have thought the sensible thing would be to register as a resident in Portugal so you have the right to reside here & go to the UK whenever you like because your UK passport will always give you the right of entry etc.

Then you've got the best of both worlds.

Red Eric

You might want to check out the advantages offered by becoming resident in Portugal and applying for Non Habitual Resident status (don't worry about the name - it actually means fully resident now but not during the previous 5 years), which this link says would exempt you from paying Portuguese capital gains tax on sales of property situated outside Portugal, as well as conferring exemptions on other types of foreign-sourced income which would normally be taxed by PT if you were resident.

https://www.belionpartners.com/portu...nt-regime.html

britishbull

Thanks for the replies,,, the problem with being resident in EU is that when I come to sell my house I will be deemed to be non-resident in UK and have to pay CG in UK, thanks to changes in budget by George Osborne (previously you could go abroad, rent out the house and sell it without CG some time down the line)... annoying but it probably just means buying a more expensive house in the EU after selling in UK (just to make sure the money does not stagnate as per cash) but that then leaves me prey to Eurocrats if Brexit goes terribly wrong.

RichardHenshall

If it's been your principal private dwelling won't you only get taxed on any gain after it ceases to be your principal dwelling, if that?

Red Eric

Honestly!

What have "Eurocrats" got to do with all this?