Moving money back to UK after property sale

[prand]

My parents have just sold their apartment in France which they've owned for 25 years. Once the sale is complete, the local notaire will be transferring funds into their French bank account after taking local taxes.

They will then want to transfer to the UK, which ought to be simple enough, but would there be any tax or capital gains liabilities?

Or what would be a tax efficient method of moving the money to the UK?

My parents own a home in UK and are UK residents.

[Eric Mc]

Were they UK tax residents in the tax year in which the French property was sold?

[prand]

Yes always have been.

[Eric Mc]

You have started two threads on this topic - so I'm not sure which one I should be replying to. Perhaps you can persuade the mods to merge them.

If they are UK tax residents, they are liable then to make a Capital Gains Tax return. Whether there is any Capital Gains Tax due will depend on how the computations work out.

[prand]

Strange must have created two threads at the same time - will delete one.

[keith333]

The only tax efficient (and legal) method of dealing with a capital gain is to realise a capital loss on other assets in the same tax year...

[prand]

keith333 said:

The only tax efficient (and legal) method of dealing with a capital gain is to realise a capital loss on other assets in the same tax year...

Fair enough - my parent's situation though is pretty straightforward, being retired, with relatively low levels of income from pensions and no complex portfolio of assets to offset one against other losses. So for them it is likely they just need to get some professional (& insured!) advice, bring it across, declare it through a tax return and take it from there.

[grumbas]

Isn't there also the concept of double taxation to consider? The French will presumably want their cut of any gains, and from memory the notary will take care of that before distributing funds.

Certainly pre-Brexit, I'm fairly certain HMRC would then apply UK rules and collect anything in excess of the amount collected by the French. When I sold mine the French collected a tiny amount, but from a UK perspective the exchange rate pushed me into a marginal loss so there was nothing to pay.

HMRC are normally quite good about publishing guides for this sort of thing so well worth a Google, but probably wise to follow up with some proper advise too.

[grumbas]

Oh just to add, with the sums involved, don't use the French bank to transfer the funds back to the UK, it will be expensive! I normally use Transferwise for moving money for bills which saves a lot, but not sure how their fees stack up on large sums, certainly worth looking around.

[prand]

grumbas said:

Oh just to add, with the sums involved, don't use the French bank to transfer the funds back to the UK, it will be expensive! I normally use Transferwise for moving money for bills which saves a lot, but not sure how their fees stack up on large sums, certainly worth looking around.

Thanks, I was thinking this - my mum said it was only going to be a €42 charge from their french bank account, which did surprise me (as seems way too reasonable). Suspect very unfavourable exchange rate and some other hidden % fees, so will look into Transferwise or similar.

[Alpinestars]

Tax rates on sale of properties in France are generally higher than the UK, so there might be no tax to pay in the UK.