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

Yes. Non-residents pay UK Capital Gains Tax (CGT) when they dispose of UK property or land, and they must report the disposal to HMRC within 60 days of completion regardless of whether tax is actually due. This is one of the few situations where the UK taxes a non-resident on a gain, and it is the rule that surprises most people who have moved abroad and assume that leaving the UK ends their UK tax exposure on property here.

The charge applies to direct disposals of UK land and buildings (residential and non-residential) and to certain indirect disposals, where you sell an interest in an entity that derives at least 75% of its value from UK land and you hold (broadly) a 25% or greater stake. 'Disposal' usually means a sale, but it also covers gifts and other transfers. Importantly, you must file a UK property return even where the result is a loss or a nil gain, so non-resident landlords and expats selling at a loss are not off the hook from reporting.

The reason the rule exists is to make sure the UK keeps the right to tax growth in UK land values that occurs while someone is abroad. It sits alongside the separate rules for rental income, which are covered in our non-resident landlord guide. If you own UK property and live overseas, it is worth understanding both before you sell.

The 60-day rule requires you to both report a UK property disposal to HMRC and pay any Capital Gains Tax owed within 60 days of the completion date. This deadline applies to completions on or after 27 October 2021 (it was 30 days for completions between 6 April 2020 and 26 October 2021). For non-residents, the obligation to file is wider than for UK residents: you must submit a UK property return for every disposal of UK land, even where no tax is due or you have made a loss.

Sixty days is a short window once a sale completes, especially when you are abroad, in a different time zone, and may need a UK property valuation. The practical advice is to start the reporting work before completion, not after, so that the valuation, costs and figures are ready to file the moment the sale goes through.

You report a non-resident UK property disposal through HMRC's online 'Capital Gains Tax on UK property' account, or by paper return if you genuinely cannot file online. This is the dedicated service for non-resident property gains, and it is separate from the main Self Assessment tax return. In outline, the process is:

• Gather the figures: completion date, sale proceeds, original cost or rebased value, and allowable costs (legal fees, agent fees, improvement costs, Stamp Duty Land Tax on purchase).
• Set up or log in to a Capital Gains Tax on UK property account (see below).
• Enter the disposal details and calculate the gain or loss, choosing the appropriate method (rebasing, time apportionment, or whole-period).
• Submit the return within 60 days of completion. HMRC issues a 14-character payment reference number (starting with 'X').
• Pay any CGT due using that reference before the 60-day deadline.

Non-residents commonly use an agent to file on their behalf, because the account set-up and the rebasing calculations can be fiddly from overseas. A fixed-fee adviser who handles the valuation logic, the return and the payment reference in one go can take a lot of the time pressure out of a sale completing while you are abroad.

Your taxable gain is broadly the disposal proceeds, less the property's base cost and allowable expenses, with the base cost usually being the rebased value rather than the original purchase price. Because non-residents are only charged on growth since the property came into the CGT net (April 2015 for residential, April 2019 for non-residential), the calculation is not simply 'sale price minus what I paid'. Instead, you typically work from a rebased value, then deduct allowable costs and apply the £3,000 annual exempt amount for 2025/26 before charging tax at the relevant rate.

You can also offset capital losses, including losses on other UK property disposals, against the gain, and the annual exempt amount is deducted once before tax is applied. Getting the base cost and method right is where most of the tax saving (or risk) sits, so it is worth taking care over the figures.

The main relief is Private Residence Relief (PRR), which can reduce or fully remove the gain on a property that has been your only or main home, but non-residents face an extra hurdle to claim it for periods they were living abroad. PRR exempts the gain for the period the property was genuinely your main residence, plus (currently) the final 9 months of ownership, even if you were not living there at the very end.

For a year in which you were non-resident, you can usually only count that year as a period of occupation for PRR if you (or your spouse or civil partner) met a 'day-count' test, broadly spending at least 90 midnights in the property (or in your UK properties combined) during that tax year (the limit is pro-rated where you were non-resident for only part of the year). This is a deliberate restriction to stop non-residents claiming full PRR on a UK home they no longer really live in. Other points worth knowing:

• Lettings relief is now very restricted and generally only applies where the owner shares occupation with a tenant, so it rarely helps a property that was let out while you were abroad.
• Spouses and civil partners can transfer property between them with no immediate CGT, which sometimes helps use both annual exempt amounts, though anti-avoidance and timing rules apply.
• Capital losses on other disposals can be set against the gain, and unused losses can be carried forward.

PRR for non-residents is genuinely technical, and an over-optimistic claim is a common source of HMRC enquiries. If you are selling a former main home from abroad, it is worth checking the day counts and the exempt period carefully, because the difference between a valid and an invalid PRR claim can be the whole tax bill.

For the 2025/26 tax year, Capital Gains Tax on UK residential property is charged at 18% on gains that fall within your remaining basic-rate band and 24% on gains above it, after deducting the £3,000 annual exempt amount. These residential property rates were left unchanged by the 30 October 2024 Budget, which raised the main rates for other assets to 18% and 24% but kept the residential rates at the same 18%/24% levels.

To work out which rate applies, you notionally add the gain on top of your UK taxable income for the year. The part of the gain sitting within any unused basic-rate band is taxed at 18%, and the rest at 24%. As a non-resident, your UK income may be limited, so more of the gain can sometimes fall in the basic-rate band than you would expect, though the interaction with the personal allowance and any UK rental income needs checking case by case. Commercial property and indirect disposals are taxed at the same 18%/24% rates for 2025/26. Rates and thresholds can change at future Budgets, so always confirm the figure for the tax year of your completion.

Often yes. If you are already in UK Self Assessment for the year, or are required to file a return for any reason, you generally report the same property disposal again on the Self Assessment return, and claim a credit for the CGT you already paid under the 60-day return. The 60-day property return is a standalone, payment-on-account style filing; the annual Self Assessment return is where the year's full position is finalised.

In practice this means you may report the same gain twice: once within 60 days of completion, and again on the Self Assessment return for that tax year, with the tax already paid set against the final liability so the gain is not taxed twice. There is a narrow exception where someone files their Self Assessment return before the 60-day deadline and includes the gain there, but for most non-residents both filings are needed. The Self Assessment stage is also where the final-year figures, losses and reliefs are reconciled, so it is important not to treat the 60-day return as the end of the matter.

The same gain can be taxable both in the UK and in your country of residence, but a double tax treaty and foreign tax credits usually stop you paying the full tax twice. As a general rule, the UK has the primary right to tax gains on UK land, and your home country (which often taxes its residents on worldwide gains) then gives credit for the UK CGT paid, or exempts the gain, depending on the relevant treaty.

How this works out in practice depends entirely on where you live. Some countries give a full credit for UK CGT; others tax the gain on a different basis (for example, using a different acquisition cost or a different definition of a main residence), which can leave a residual amount of tax to pay. Timing matters too, because the UK and your home country may use different tax years and different valuation rules. This is exactly the kind of cross-border interaction where coordinated UK and local advice pays for itself, and it is the core of what a cross-border tax practice does day to day. The figures here are UK-side only; you should confirm the home-country treatment with a local adviser or one who works across both systems.

Here is a clearly hypothetical example to show how the pieces fit together. The figures are illustrative only and not based on any real client. For example, suppose Maria left the UK in 2016 and is now non-resident, living overseas. She bought a London flat in 2010 for £300,000, lived in it as her main home until she left, and has let it out since. She sells it in the 2025/26 tax year for £520,000.

Because the flat is residential and was owned before 6 April 2015, Maria can rebase to its 5 April 2015 market value, which a surveyor values at £400,000. Working from the rebased value, her starting gain is £520,000 minus £400,000, which is £120,000. She deducts allowable selling costs of, say, £10,000 (agent and legal fees), leaving £110,000.

She then considers Private Residence Relief. She only occupied the flat as her main home before April 2015, so the post-rebasing gain mostly relates to years she was abroad and letting it out; she would only get PRR for any qualifying period plus the final 9 months of ownership, and only for non-resident years where she met the 90-midnight day-count test. To keep the example simple, suppose PRR and the final-period relief together cover £20,000 of the gain, leaving £90,000 chargeable.

After deducting the 2025/26 annual exempt amount of £3,000, her taxable gain is £87,000. If she has little or no UK income that year, part of the gain falls in the basic-rate band and is taxed at 18%, with the balance at 24%; if she is a higher-rate taxpayer overall, more is taxed at 24%. She must report the disposal and pay the CGT within 60 days of completion through her Capital Gains Tax on UK property account, and then, if required, report it again on her Self Assessment return and claim credit for the tax already paid. Her home country may also want to tax the gain, with treaty relief reducing or removing any double charge.

Change any one of these facts (the rebased valuation, the method chosen, the day counts for PRR, her UK income, or her country of residence) and the answer moves. That is why a quick review before completion is usually worthwhile.