Capital gains tax – Sneaky rules?

If I’m reading this properly, the deadline was extended from 30 days to 60 days.

Information is freely available on the Internet. Your solicitor possibly should have told you but we are all responsible fir paying our own tax.

Agree with Cider
You need to know what Taxes are due and when.
Do you use an accountant ?
Another tax deductible expense.
Great that you maintain your property and run a BTL business but your not a charity so why not increase you Rents inline with Inflation or local markets rates ?

There are a few exceptions:
You do not have to report a capital gains LOSS within 60 days, this is optional.
You might want to report this if the loss occurs before a subsequent gain occurs in the same tax year to immediately lower the amount of CGT payable.
OR both the property sold at a loss and the other sold at a gain can both be reported within the same 60 day period, even if the loss occurred several weeks after the gain.
OR if you have sold the property at a loss and the gain is less than the loss you do NOT have to report either transaction within the 60 day period (as no tax is due). Instead you just report both transactions on you self-assessment tax return. This is shortly the position I will be in - transferring one property to a family member at a loss and also before this tax year ends transferring another property at a smaller gain. I am not a tax expert - I arranged for a call back with HMRC from a very helpful tax inspector in the CGT section.
WHAT YOU CAN'T DO IS SELL A PROPERTY AT A GAIN AND NOTIFY THE TRANSACTION WITHIN 60 DAYS AND PAY THE CGT OWING AND THEN LATER IN THE YEAR SELL A PROPERTY AT A LOSS AND THEN TRY AND BACKDATE THE LOSS TO OFFSET THE CGT YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID. YOU JUST HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU CPMPLETE YOUR CGT PAGES OF YOUR SELF ASSESSMENT TAX RETURN.

Another really important point to be aware of …… the date HMRC use to calculate the effective sale date of the property and your CGT liability is the date contracts are exchanged not the actual sale completion date.
You need to be aware of this if you’re looking to push your capital gains into the next 2024/2025 fiscal year.
For example let’s say you exchanged contracts on 23rd March 2024 and completed the sale on 8th April 2024. Intentionally as you’re a high rate tax payer for 2023/24 but going to be a basic rate tax payer in 2024/2025….. you’re thinking with the sale completing in 2024/2025 you’ll save on your CGT due.
WRONG - HMRC use the date contracts were exchanged not the actual sale date so your CGT would be due in the current 2023/24 tax year even though your sale completed in the 2024/2025 tax year. Just something to watch out for it nearly caught me out.

Also, I discovered, it's not two months as some have 31 days .

Reply to the comment left by Jan at 31/01/2024 - 11:45That's why they made it exactly 60 days to save any confusion. Adjacent months can often total 62 days whereas usually, but not this year, January + February, or February + March are only 59 days.

It’s 60 days FROM exchange of contracts NOT from the date of completion.

https://uklandlordtax.co.uk/how-to-work-out-your-capital-gains-tax/

It amazes me that solicitors rarely point out this obligation. They are probably negligent for not doing so, but I do not know if anyone has ever succeeded in getting a solicitor to cough up.
Normally the penalty would be £100, but increases if more than 6 months late, so your tax return must have been very late!

Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 31/01/2024 - 15:22the website you referred to states as follows
For UK Residents:
Where there is a residential property sale and there is Capital Gains Tax to pay, the gain must be reported and the tax paid to HMRC within 60 days of the completion of the sale.
So it's 60 days from completion date, not exchange date??

Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 31/01/2024 - 15:22
I can't believe this would be the case. I've had longer than 60 days between exchange and completion. They cannot expect you to pay tax when the transaction has not been completed. This occurred when I wanted to work on the property during the exchange and completion.