Capital Gains Tax on UK Property for Non-Residents: The 60-Day Reporting Rule

Yes. Non-residents pay UK Capital Gains Tax (GOV.UK) when they dispose of UK land and property, and the rules now reach far wider than they once did. Being tax resident overseas does not exempt you: the UK keeps taxing rights over UK property regardless of where the owner lives, and a double tax treaty rarely changes that for direct property disposals.

A 'disposal' is not only a sale. It also includes giving the property away, transferring it (for example into a trust or to a connected person), or receiving a capital sum from it. Gifts between spouses or civil partners are usually made on a no gain, no loss basis, but the receiving spouse inherits the original base cost, so the gain is simply deferred rather than removed.

The charge applies to individuals, trustees and personal representatives who are non-resident, and there is a parallel regime for non-resident companies. If you are unsure whether you are UK resident for a given year, that question is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, and getting it right matters because it changes both the rate and the reporting route.

You must report the disposal to HMRC and pay any Capital Gains Tax due within 60 days of the completion date, not the date contracts were exchanged. This 60-day deadline has applied to completions on or after 27 October 2021 (it was 30 days for completions between 6 April 2020 and 26 October 2021).

The critical trap for non-residents is this: you must report the disposal even if you have no tax to pay. Unlike a UK resident, who only needs to file the 60-day return where there is CGT due, a non-resident has to report every disposal of UK property or land, including disposals that produce a loss or that are fully covered by a relief such as Private Residence Relief. This is a separate, standalone obligation that exists whether or not you are in Self Assessment (GOV.UK).

Reporting and paying are two halves of the same 60-day window. You file the return through HMRC's online service, HMRC issues a payment reference, and you then pay the tax shown. If you are also a UK resident in the year, the gain can be reported through the same property service; non-residents always use it.

You report a non-resident property disposal through HMRC's 'Capital Gains Tax on UK property' online service, and the process runs in a clear sequence. Here is the order we use for clients.

• Step 1: Set up a 'Capital Gains Tax on UK property account'. You will need a Government Gateway user ID (you can create one as part of sign-up). Non-residents without a National Insurance number can still register.
• Step 2: Gather your figures. You need the completion date, the sale proceeds, the original cost or the 5 April 2015 / 5 April 2019 value, any improvement costs, and your buying and selling expenses.
• Step 3: Choose your calculation method (rebasing, time apportionment or the whole-period gain) and work out the chargeable gain. More on this below.
• Step 4: Enter the disposal, apply the £3,000 annual exempt amount and any relief such as Private Residence Relief, and let the service calculate the tax.
• Step 5: Submit the return. HMRC issues a 14-character payment reference beginning with the letter 'X'.
• Step 6: Pay the tax using that reference before the 60-day deadline.

If you would rather not navigate the Government Gateway from overseas, an agent can report on your behalf. A digitally-excluded taxpayer can ask HMRC for a paper form instead, but the online route is faster and reduces the risk of a late filing.

Your taxable gain is broadly the disposal proceeds less your base cost and allowable costs, but as a non-resident you usually have a choice of how to fix that base cost. The default for residential property held on 5 April 2015 is to use its value on that date, so that only the growth since then is taxed, but two alternative methods exist and the best one depends on your numbers.

Because the methods can give very different results, this is a point worth modelling rather than guessing. A property that fell in value after 2015, or that you owned for decades, can produce a markedly lower bill under one method than another.

Private Residence Relief (PRR) can reduce or completely remove the gain on a property that has been your only or main home, and it is the most valuable relief for individuals. The final period of ownership (currently the last 9 months) usually qualifies automatically once the property has been your main residence at some point.

For non-residents there is an important extra condition. To count a tax year as a period of residence for PRR while you are non-resident, either you (or your spouse or civil partner) must have spent at least 90 midnights in that property (or other UK properties you own) during the year, known as the 'day count test'. Without meeting that test, the year does not qualify as occupation, and the relief is restricted accordingly.

PRR interacts with the rebasing rules and with periods of letting, so the calculation can be intricate for a former UK home you moved out of when you left the country. We see this constantly with clients who have relocated abroad and later sell the house they used to live in, and the relief is often larger than they expect once the figures are worked through properly.

For 2026/27 the Capital Gains Tax rates on UK residential property for individuals are 18% on gains that fall within your unused basic rate band (GOV.UK) and 24% on gains above it. These are the standard residential rates and they apply to non-residents in the same way as to residents.

• 18% rate: applies to the part of the gain that, when added to your taxable income, still falls within the basic rate band (taxable income up to £37,700 in 2026/27).
• 24% rate: applies to the part of the gain above that band.
• Annual exempt amount: the first £3,000 of total gains in 2026/27 is tax-free, per person.
• Personal allowance: £12,570 for 2026/27. As a non-resident you may or may not be entitled to the UK personal allowance, depending on your nationality and the relevant treaty, which affects how much basic rate band is available.

Because non-residents often have little or no other UK taxable income, more of the gain can fall into the 18% band than a UK resident with a full UK salary would enjoy. That is one of several planning points we look at before a sale, alongside timing the disposal across tax years and using both spouses' annual exempt amounts where the property is jointly owned.

Often, yes. If you are already in UK Self Assessment, you must also report the same disposal on the Capital Gains pages of your tax return for the year of sale, in addition to the 60-day return. The two are not alternatives: the 60-day return is an early payment-on-account mechanism, and the Self Assessment return is the final reconciliation.

On the annual return, the tax already paid through the 60-day return is credited, and any difference (because your final income figures, losses or reliefs are now known) is either collected or refunded. If the 60-day return showed too much tax, the Self Assessment return is usually how you recover the overpayment, so filing it is in your interest.

If you are a non-resident who is not otherwise in Self Assessment, the 60-day property return may be your only filing for that disposal, but selling UK property can itself bring you into Self Assessment, so it is worth checking your wider position. Our non-resident landlord and expat Self Assessment guides cover when a return is required.

Your country of residence may also tax the same gain, but a double tax treaty (GOV.UK treaty list) and foreign tax credits (GOV.UK) usually prevent you from paying twice on the same profit. Because the UK has the primary right to tax UK land, the typical pattern is that the UK taxes the gain first and your home country gives credit for the UK tax paid against its own charge.

The detail varies a great deal by country. Some treaties exempt the gain at home once UK tax is paid; others tax the whole gain and give a credit; and the foreign calculation may use a different base cost (often the original purchase price, not the 5 April 2015 value), so the taxable amount abroad can differ from the UK figure. Timing of payment also matters, because foreign credit systems often require the UK tax to have been paid before they will relieve it.

This is precisely the cross-border overlap that we specialise in at Horizon. We coordinate the UK position with your home-country adviser on a fixed-fee basis, so you know the all-in cost before you complete the sale rather than discovering a surprise on two tax returns afterwards.

The following figures are illustrative only and are designed to show the mechanics, not to predict your result. Imagine a hypothetical non-resident, living in Spain, who completes the sale of a former London flat on 10 September 2026 (in the 2026/27 tax year) for £600,000.

• She bought the flat in 2008, so it is rebased to its 5 April 2015 value, which a surveyor puts at £450,000.
• Chargeable gain before costs: £600,000 less £450,000 = £150,000.
• Allowable selling and improvement costs since 2015: £20,000, leaving a gain of £130,000.
• The flat was her main home until she emigrated, and PRR plus the final 9 months covers part of the gain; assume £40,000 of relief, leaving £90,000.
• Annual exempt amount for 2026/27: £3,000, leaving a taxable gain of £87,000.
• She has no other UK taxable income, so part of the gain falls in the basic rate band. Assuming a full basic rate band is available, roughly £37,700 is taxed at 18% (£6,786) and the remaining £49,300 at 24% (£11,832).

On these hypothetical figures the UK CGT is around £18,618, due within 60 days of the 10 September 2026 completion, so by early November 2026. Her Spanish adviser would then consider relief for that UK tax against any Spanish charge. Your own numbers, residence facts and treaty position could change this substantially, which is why we model the actual sale before it completes.