PJ65

Hi All, I'm sure this has been raised before , but after being here in Australia for 20yrs (we thought we'd give it a year) we've decided to sell our house in the UK. We rented it for 17yrs owned it for 3 yrs and ,paid Tax as per Australian tax law on any profit.

Has any one been through some thing similar recently, the tax implications seem quite a mine field.

Thanks PJ

christmasoompa

No idea on any taxes due in Oz, but here's the info you need on UK capital gains tax - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-...e-gain-or-loss

HTH.

spouse of scouse

It'd be well worth getting an accountant to sort this out for you. As far as I know you'll be subject to CGT in both the UK and Australia, but under the double taxation agreement the ATO will give you a credit for the amount of UK CGT you paid. There are particular ownership/rental/time rules around the Oz CGT owing as well, which you probably know.

PJ65

​​​​​I have to agree ,after looking at the previous link it's a lengthy read on British taxation. My wife and I just need to find a reputable tax agent who deals regularly with these matters.

thanks for the help.

PJ

PJ65

Thanks for the link, its quite the long read.

PJ

Pulaski

Any Chartered Accountant in the UK should be able to help you with the UK CGT computation. It is quite a minefield, with various periods likely exempt from CGT, as well as indexation allowance, and deductions for capital expenditure.

There may also be a tax saving if you can finagle returning to live in it, even briefly, before you sell it, but you should discuss if that is viable, if the tax saving outweighs the cost, and whether it can be done "convincingly" for tax purposes, with an accountant before making plans.

dcw

Just been through exactly this. Sold a house in the UK that we’d been renting out since 1995 when we bought it as an investment. Moved here in 2002 and continued renting it out until last year. Finally sold in January this year.

We obtained a written valuation just prior to emigrating in 2002 and again in 2015 when the CGT rules changed in the UK.

We filled in the online UK CGT declaration form immediately after selling. If there is any CGT to pay, you have to pay it then. I can’t remember how much time you have. You only pay CGT on the increase in value since 2015, and then only above the CGT allowance. In the case of my wife and I there was nothing to pay. There are a couple of other options for calculating CGT if they work out cheaper for you. I believe that the UK government have just halved the CGT tax free allowance though. The rate you pay depends on your marginal tax rate in the UK.

As for Australian tax, as far as I can tell, you pay tax on the increase in the AUD value of the property when you migrated vs the AUD value when you sell. As the pound has declined in value so much since 2002 this should mean that we actually declare a loss on this years Australian tax returns

If you do pay any UK tax it should count against any Australian tax liability due to the double taxation agreement.

Please don’t take my word for anything as I’m not an expert, but this is how I understand it all works.

PJ65

Hi DCW, thanks for the reply and the info it helps, we currently have the house on the market actually this week as the tenants have just moved out, so here's hoping all goes smoothly and we sell it!

cheers

PJW

dcw

I wish you the best of luck. Unfortunately I had some issues with the house to deal with after the tenants moved out so I couldn’t get the house on the market for another 4 months which lead to some stresses. Glad it’s all sorted now. Once on the market it sold quickly.