Gains from off-plan purchases of your home

 

If the property has been acquired before it is fully constructed, the ownership condition will be met for the period before it is inhabited but the occupation condition will not. 

 

This has implications for properties which are purchased ‘off-plan’. For capital gains tax purposes the ownership period begins on the day contracts for purchase are agreed and exchanged, not on the day the contract is completed. For an off-plan purchase the contracts may be exchanged many months or years before the property is finished and ready to inhabit. 

 

As HMRC assumes the gain on the sale of the property accrues equally over the period it is owned, a large part of the gain is allocated to the period before the owner can move in. 

 

If this applies to you, we should review your purchase contracts before you sell the property. If the contract contained conditions which effectively included break points in the agreement to purchase, the ownership period may be calculated from a later date, which will reduce your taxable gain. 

Please do let us know if you have any questions or if you need any further help understanding the guidance – please call us on 01932 564098 or message us here. 

 

This note was published from our Winter 2018 Tax Briefing dated December 2018 

 

Please be aware that the information above may have changed in subsequent months. 

 

This note is written for the general interest of our clients and is not a substitute for consulting the relevant legislation or for taking professional advice.