Capital Gains Tax Reporting & Planning
If you sell a UK residential property at a gain, you must report it and pay the capital gains tax within 60 days of completion. If you are non-resident the rule is stricter: a UK property return is due within 60 days of completion whether or not there is any tax to pay, and it covers commercial property and indirect disposals of UK property rich companies as well as residential. Gains on residential property are taxed at 18% or 24% depending on your income, and since October 2024 the same two rates apply to shares, crypto and everything else, so the old 10% and 20% rates no longer exist. We calculate the gain, claim every relief available and file the return on time.
Capital gains tax reporting is overseen by Hussein Bhaiji, our Managing Partner and a Chartered Tax Adviser. You can see what this has saved clients in our property tax, ATED and capital gains case studies.
Capital Gains Tax is one of the easiest taxes to overpay, and one of the easiest to be penalised on for filing late. Most accountants simply report the gain you hand them and work out the bill. We do the opposite: we plan the disposal before it happens, claim every relief you’re entitled to, and make sure the 60-day reporting deadline never catches you out. Led by Chartered Tax Advisers, with professionals in the team who have worked inside HMRC, we treat Capital Gains Tax as a planning opportunity, not just a form to file. For the official rules, see HMRC’s guidance on how to report and pay your Capital Gains Tax.
When Capital Gains Tax Applies
You may have a Capital Gains Tax liability whenever you sell, gift or otherwise dispose of an asset that has risen in value, including:
- A second home, buy-to-let or other residential property that isn’t your main home.
- Shares, funds and other investments held outside an ISA or pension.
- Cryptoassets: HMRC treats most crypto disposals as chargeable to Capital Gains Tax
- The sale of a business, or of shares in your own company.
- Other valuable assets, such as land, commercial property or certain personal possessions.
With the annual tax-free allowance now just £3,000, a fraction of what it was a few years ago, far more disposals now produce a tax bill, so the planning matters more than ever.
The 60 Day Deadline Most People Miss
If you sell or gift a UK residential property at a gain, you must report it to HMRC and pay the Capital Gains Tax due within 60 days of completion, not at the end of the tax year. Miss it and HMRC charges automatic penalties and interest. This is the single biggest CGT trap, and it catches out sellers, and even some accountants, every year. We handle the whole process: calculating the gain, claiming the right reliefs, filing the 60-day return, and telling you exactly what to pay and by when.
Example. A landlord sells a rental flat in June and mentions it to their accountant the following January when preparing the tax return. The sixty day deadline passed in August. Late filing penalties and interest run from that August date, not from January, and by then the position is far harder to fix than it would have been with a phone call before completion.
What Are the Penalties for a Late 60 Day Return?
- An initial £100 fixed penalty as soon as the deadline passes
- Further penalties of £300 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher, as the delay extends past six and twelve months
- Interest on the tax from the original due date
- A separate penalty regime for late payment, in addition to late filing
The practical point is that all of it is avoidable with one conversation. If you are selling a property that is not your main home, tell your accountant before completion rather than after. Sixty days sounds like plenty until the sale itself absorbs most of it.
How We Reduce Your Capital Gains Tax Bills
Because our team is led by Chartered Tax Advisers, we look for the reliefs and planning points an ordinary accountant overlooks:
- Private Residence Relief on a property that has been your main home, including periods that may still qualify after you move out.
- Business Asset Disposal Relief on the sale of your business or qualifying company shares, now at 18% rather than the 10% most people remember, and capped at £1 million of gains across your lifetime.
- Using both spouses’ annual exemptions, and transferring assets between spouses before a sale.
- Timing disposals across tax years to use more than one year’s allowance.
- Offsetting current-year and brought-forward capital losses.
- Gift Holdover Relief and Rollover Relief where assets are gifted or business proceeds reinvested.
The reliefs on this page are in the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992: private residence relief at section 223, the spouse transfer at section 58, holdover relief at sections 165 and 260, and rollover relief at section 152.
The biggest savings come from planning before you sell. Speak to us before a disposal, not after; once contracts are exchanged, most of the options are gone.
What Our Capital Gains Tax Service Includes
- Preparation and submission of your CGT on UK property return within the 60-day deadline.
- CGT calculations and reporting through self-assessment for shares, investments, crypto and other assets.
- A pre-sale planning review to structure the disposal as tax-efficiently as possible.
- Full advice on allowable costs, reliefs and exemptions.
- Support and representation if HMRC queries your return.
Why Choose Merit For Capital Gains Tax
We’re Chartered Tax Advisers, the highest tax qualification in the UK, not just accountants, and our team has worked inside HMRC, so we know how CGT enquiries are run and how to keep you on the right side of them. In the last two years alone, we’ve saved clients over £9.2 million in tax. You get clear, fixed-fee advice agreed up front, no jargon, no surprises, no obligation.
Ensure Compliant CGT Reporting
Capital Gains Tax FAQs
For UK residential property, within 60 days of completion, both the report and the payment. For other assets, the gain is usually reported through your self-assessment tax return after the tax year ends.
The annual exempt amount is currently £3,000 per person. Anything above that is taxable, so using both spouses’ allowances and timing your disposals can make a real difference.
Usually not. Your main home normally qualifies for Private Residence Relief. It gets more complicated if you’ve let the property, used part of it for business, or own more than one home, which is exactly where good advice pays for itself.
In most cases, yes. HMRC treats disposals of cryptoassets, including swapping one coin for another, as chargeable to Capital Gains Tax. We can calculate and report this for you.
Cryptoasset platforms now report to HMRC too. Since 1 January 2026, UK cryptoasset service providers have had to collect each user’s name, address, date of birth, tax residence and tax reference, together with their transactions, under the Reporting Cryptoasset Service Providers Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/744). The first reports reach HMRC by 31 May 2027 and cover the 2026 calendar year, so anyone with unreported crypto gains should put it right before HMRC has the data.
Yes. We advise non-UK residents with UK tax exposure, including those with UK property, UK-source income, or more complex international circumstances.
Stamp duty and legal fees on purchase, agent and legal fees on sale, and capital improvements such as an extension. Repairs and redecoration do not count. The distinction between improvement and repair is where most of the money is won or lost.
Usually not, if you are UK resident, because Private Residence Relief typically covers the whole gain. It applies to second homes, buy to lets and inherited property you have not lived in. Non-residents are different again, and have to file within 60 days on any UK property disposal whether or not tax is due.
File as soon as possible. Penalties escalate with time, so the position gets worse the longer it is left, and there is nothing to gain from waiting. We deal with late returns regularly and it is almost always recoverable.