Capital gains tax and tied work accommodation - any experts?

[PippaWilliamm]

I’ve been trying to work this out and can’t! I’ll pay for an accountant but wondered if anyone else has been through this and can help.
My DH works in a boarding school where he is required to live in a flat at the school. We have lived there as a family for 9 years. 5 years ago we decided to buy a house locally in case anything happened with his job, and for us to live in when the time came to change jobs. We have rented it out the whole time. Our intention was always to live there but now that he really is leaving the job, we think it would be sensible to downsize to a smaller house as the cost of living and lack of expected pay rises means that it would be a real stretch in the bigger house with a bigger mortgage.

According to this HMRC page

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg64555

as our intent was to live there, we are can have private resident relief and not pay CGT? But other stuff I’ve read suggests that’s not true as we rented it out and never lived there.

Has anyone been through similar and actually know? I have had conflicting advice so far!

The last paragraph of that guidance states
"There may be circumstances where the dwelling-house is let or used for some other purpose whilst the individual occupies the job-related accommodation. This will not prevent relief from being available, although if the lease of the dwelling-house extends beyond the period of expected occupation of the job-related accommodation, this may be evidence that there was no intention to occupy the dwelling-house at the end of the period."

So I would interpret that as you are entitled to the relief.

I had similar a few years ago, I owned a flat and my partner was a carer, living in a house provided by the man he looked after as it was quite a rural location. I only moved in with him for 2 years and wasn't liable for cgt when I sold the flat, although I didn't rent it out.

I would err on the side of caution and get some advice, can you still ring HMRC to ask them?

Thank you so much @Goldpanther. Yes, definitely going to get some advice as I don’t want to get in trouble further down the line.