Death & Taxes - What are the tax implications of purchasing, selling and owning a property in the UK?
What are the tax implications of purchasing, selling and owning a property
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Woah. Everyone’s favorite topic. Tax. Lot’s of people complain about tax…. But trying to put a positive spin on it…. If you are paying tax it means your making money. Better to be earning from your properties, and have to pay some tax, versus not earning any money or paying tax (apart from Stamp Duty… I hate that tax!).
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I will try keep this one short and sweet. How’s it going to be structured?
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We will look at each scenario from a personal ownership perspective
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If at any point you want more information, stop reading and send me a message. I’ll send you some further reading! We will look at;
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-???????Purchasing
-???????Selling
-???????Owning/Ongoing
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Purchasing;
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Only one tax to have to consider here…. Stamp Duty Land Tax
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To keep it simple, I will look at the English figures/scenario. Know that the Welsh and English systems are fairly similar but may differ by a percentage here or there.
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In England you pay stamp duty on property when you purchase it, there is no way to mitigate this, unless you are a first time buyer. It’s a banded system and paid as per below. Its levied as a percentage of the property value, as per below;
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-???????GBP0-125k = 0%
-???????GBP125-250k = 2%
-???????GBP250-925k – 5%
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If it’s a second property, or buy to let, then there is a 3% surcharge, giving rates of;
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-???????GBP0-125k = 3%
-???????GBP125-250k = 5%
-???????GBP250-925k – 8%
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If your living overseas, even if you are a British passport holder, there is a further 2% surcharge, giving;
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-???????GBP0-125k = 5%
-???????GBP125-250k = 7%
领英推荐
-???????GBP250-925k – 10%
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The immediate question that springs to mind is… is it still worth it? Well, that’s a question for another article. But in short, yes. If you consider we achieved a 11% increase in house prices in the UK last year, then even if you paid 10% you would have effectively made it back on the property value!
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Selling;
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When you sell a property you are liable to pay ‘Capital Gains Tax
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If you sell your main home, and you have lived in it the whole time then there is no capital gains tax. If you have lived in it part of the time, then there are tax reliefs available - https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home.
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If you are selling a buy to let or second home then you will need to pay CGT. This will either be 18% or 28% tax depending on whether you are a higher rate tax payer or not.
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You do get an annual CGT allowance
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Owning/Ongoing;
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If your living in the property then you need to think about council tax. If your renting it out then the main tax you need to consider is income tax. i.e. are you liable to pay tax on the income you are earning from the property.
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Currently, in the UK, you have a personal tax free allowance of GBP12,570. This means that you will not have to pay any tax if the income from your property (ies) is below this. You should however sign up to the UKs Non Resident Land Lord Scheme, so that you are paid you income tax in full (without the management agent taking any withholding tax!). You can do so here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-resident-landlord-application-to-have-uk-rental-income-without-deduction-of-uk-tax-individuals-nrl1.
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Once you are over this allowance then you are liable ot pay income tax, at the rates laid out here - https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates.
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If you are planning on buying more properties, and your income is going to continue to grow, then you may want to consider setting up a UK Ltd in order to own property, where in many circumstances you will pay less tax. Have a watch of the below video if it’s something you are interested in.
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So, there you have it! The main taxes to consider are;
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-???????Stamp Duty
-???????CGT
-???????Income tax
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If you would like any more information then please drop me a note and I can send you further reading.
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Thanks, Callum