Selling UK property from abroad: the 60-day rule

Two separate things catch non-resident sellers, and conveyancing solicitors reliably mention neither. The first is the tax itself: since April 2015 the UK taxes non-residents on gains from UK residential property (2019 for commercial property and 'property-rich' companies) — many longstanding expats still believe, correctly for the time they left, that non-residents don't pay UK CGT. The second is the deadline: a standalone return, with a payment on account of the tax, due 60 days from completion. Not exchange — completion. And for non-residents the return is due even when the answer is nil; UK residents only file when tax is due, which is why your UK-based friends have never heard of it.

Who must file

Any non-resident disposing of UK land: houses, flats, commercial units, bare land, and — the one that startles company owners — shares in a company that is 75%+ UK land by value, where you've held 25% or more at some point in the two years before the sale. Gifts count as disposals too: giving the flat to your daughter starts the same 60-day clock at market value.

The gain: three ways to compute it, your choice

Because the charge only reaches back to 2015 (or 2019), long-held property gets options, chosen per disposal:

1. Rebasing: treat the April 2015 market value (April 2019 for commercial/indirect) as your cost. For property owned since long before then, most of the gain simply vanishes from the computation.
2. Straight-line apportionment: compute the whole gain, then tax only the fraction of ownership time falling after April 2015.
3. The whole gain (or loss): occasionally the right answer — particularly to bank a usable loss.

The choice is irrevocable per disposal, so the three computations get run before filing, not after. A proper retrospective valuation at April 2015 — a RICS red-book job, entirely obtainable years later — is the document everything else rests on, and worth every penny of its £300-odd cost.

Rates, reliefs and the payment on account

• Residential gains: 18% within your unused UK basic-rate band, 24% above it. The £3,000 annual exempt amount applies if not used elsewhere.
• Private residence relief still works for years you actually lived there before going abroad, plus the final nine months automatically — though under rebasing, pre-2015 occupation often becomes irrelevant, as above.
• The 60-day payment is a best estimate — your final income for the year (which sets how much gain sits in the 18% band) may not be known yet. Estimate reasonably, file, and true it up in the year-end Self Assessment; overpayments come back.

The penalty clock, precisely

£100 the day the return is late. Potential £10-a-day penalties after three months. £300 or 5% of the tax at six months, again at twelve. Interest on unpaid tax throughout, at rates that are currently genuinely painful. The vital fact: penalties stop accruing when the return goes in. Filing is the tourniquet; the appeal comes second. "My solicitor never mentioned it" appeals succeed sometimes, fail sometimes — speed at the moment of discovery is what tribunals and HMRC officers consistently reward.

Your new country wants its slice too

If you live somewhere that taxes worldwide gains — Australia, Canada, the US, Spain — the same sale appears on that return as well, computed under local rules with a credit for the UK tax. Two wrinkles catch people. Currency: a flat that broke even in sterling can show a healthy gain in dollars, and vice versa — both computations are 'right'. And timing: the local credit needs the UK side finished and correct first. The 60-day deadline, annoying as it is, at least guarantees the UK number exists in time.

Questions we're asked every week

"The completion is next month. When should you start?"

Now. The 2015 valuation, the purchase records and the completion statement are the long poles. Clients who instruct us at exchange file in the first fortnight of the sixty days and never think about it again.

"It sold at a loss. Surely I can skip the return?"

No — the nil/loss return is still mandatory for non-residents, and the recorded loss is worth keeping: it offsets other UK property gains, now or later.

"I found out on day 70. How bad is it?"

£100 bad, so far. File this week and it stays £100 bad, plus interest on any tax. We have rescued dozens of these; the only clients who ended up in real penalty territory were the ones who spent three months hoping it would go away.

The 60-day service is £449 — computation, rebasing comparison, the return and the payment set-up, at whatever speed the calendar demands.