Help with a tax question please
Help with a tax question please
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deeps

Original Poster:

5,432 posts

265 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
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Hello, any help would be appreciated on this question...

If I receive a payment subject to capital gains tax for selling land, when does the tax become due? I believe residential property tax is due within 6 months of completion, but not greenfield land?

At present I believe cgt is 20%, but there is much talk of a possible Labour government from Dec 24 / Jan 25, and an increase in cgt to 40%.

Assuming that to come true, what would be the latest I could receive payment, declare it to HMRC, and pay at the lower rate of 20%?

My thinking is that if a payment was received on or after 6th April 2024 (which will be declared to HMRC on the 6th April 2025 tax return) would it be charged at 2024 taxation levels (20%) because that's when the payment was received, or would it be charged at 2025 taxation levels (40%)?

Do payments received have to be declared in this drawn out way, or could you pay the due cgt early to avoid the suspected huge hike?

Thanks!


Rollin

6,300 posts

269 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
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I believe that the prevailing CGT rate at exchange of unconditional contracts is what you pay.

Eric Mc

124,992 posts

289 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
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The time limit for reporting CGT AND paying the resultant tax liability on RESIDENTIAL properties is not six months but 60 days.
However, CGT on non residential land or buildings is returned through the annual Self Assessment tax system.

deeps

Original Poster:

5,432 posts

265 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
quotequote all
Rollin said:
I believe that the prevailing CGT rate at exchange of unconditional contracts is what you pay.
That would be great, do you have any links to further confirmation of that please?

Rollin

6,300 posts

269 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
quotequote all
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-g...

Double check as I'm not an expert. It was what I was told when considering the sale of a business

Mogul

3,061 posts

247 months

Wednesday 23rd August 2023
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This.

If you sell a business on 6th April vs. 5th April, you’ll won’t have to pay the CGT due until 31 Jan in the following tax year so potentially 21 months (vs. 9 months later) so v. important that you don’t overlook this and get caught short when the bill
Is due…

And my understanding is that if the deal was structured as an earn out, the tax due will be assessed as at completion (based on estimates/projections) and will stick, even though you never receive the assessed value if the transaction underperforms…