capital gains - is there any way around this?

[Wishthiswasntthecase]

Parents got into financial difficulty and I bought their house from them as I could get a mortgage. I was in my 20s and lived there. I met someone, moved out and rented, then my partner bought a property, but as I already had a mortgage its in their name alone.

Fast forward 24 years and my parents have died. House is up for sale. I’d naively thought as I only own one property GCT wouldn’t apply as it was on second homes. But it looks like as I’m on the electoral roll at my partners house then that is classed as my main residence and I’ll have to pay CGT when the house sells … anyone any idea if this is true (seems I could have made an election to make the house my primary residence but that had to be in the first 2 years?)

Couldn’t you just keep it and register there and sell in a few years

Looking on the gov website it says it's ok if you lived in it at some point?

Have you rung the tax office to ask?

There's also a CGT calculator online which if you complete will tell you if you owe or not. I filled it in based on your detail in the OP and it said none payable.

Even if you had somehow treated it as a primary residence, you'd still have to pay CGT for the majority of the gain as you've not been living their.

It's a principal RESIDENCE relief, unfortunately in this instance, not something that just applies to everyone's first property.

Remember if you sell CGT has to be paid within days, not at the next tax return.

You may be able to get some lettings relief or similar but I think that's fairly limited now.

It's worth getting an accountant that deals with capital gains tax, I did with a situation I was in after inheriting my parents house which I had bought for them originally with a mortgage. The accountant only cost £300 but saved me much more than that. If I had used the government calculator without their advice i would have paid much more capital gains tax than i did as i would have completed it incorrectly.

In most cases you have to live in the house to get main residence relief. It’s time apportioned so you’ll get some relief for the time you lived in at and a few months more, but it sounds like most of the gain won’t be exempt and there’ll be a significant CGT liability. May be worth a consultation with an accountant to check there are no other applicable exemptions such as living in work accommodation, working abroad, etc.

Thanks all, you’ve confirmed what i thought, I’ve used the calculator already and assumed that there was not much I can do about it. Will definitely see an accountant