Capital Gains Tax on Property Calculator

Capital Gains Tax on residential property has been charged at the same rates as other assets since 30 October 2024. For 2026/27 basic-rate taxpayers pay 18% and higher and additional-rate taxpayers pay 24%, and the annual exempt amount of £3,000 comes off the gain first. The rate is not settled by your salary alone, because the gain is added to your taxable income, so the part of it still falling inside the £37,700 basic rate band is taxed at 18% and anything above at 24%.

Your main home is normally outside the net thanks to Private Residence Relief. Second homes, buy-to-lets, property inherited and sold after probate, and gifts to anyone other than a spouse are all inside it. Gifts between spouses and civil partners are free of CGT. Selling to a family member at a favourable price does not help either, because HMRC can treat the disposal as having taken place at market value.

The gain itself is the sale price less what you paid for the property and less your allowable costs. Legal fees at both ends, the stamp duty paid on purchase, estate agent fees and capital improvements such as an extension, a new kitchen or a new boiler all come off. The £3,000 annual exempt amount is then deducted, and whatever remains is the figure the rates are applied to.

Private Residence Relief is generous but conditional. It covers a property you lived in throughout your ownership. Move out and the relief becomes partial, though the last 9 months always count as if you were still living there. Letting Relief can knock up to £40,000 off the taxable gain, but since April 2020 it applies only where you shared the property with your tenants. Letting out a former home in its entirety after moving out no longer attracts it.

The calculator works from the purchase and sale prices, the buying and selling costs, any capital improvements, how long the property was your home and whether you still lived there at the sale. It applies Private Residence Relief and then the annual exemption before showing the net liability, which is the figure you will need for the return. Letting Relief is not included, because it now depends on how much of the home you shared with a tenant.

The reporting deadline is much tighter than for the rest of Self Assessment. A disposal of UK residential property has to be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion, through the Capital Gains Tax on UK property service. The rule started at 30 days in April 2020 and was extended to 60 days for completions from 27 October 2021. Missing it costs £100 immediately, then £10 a day once the return is 3 months late, with interest on the unpaid tax. Non-residents face the same 60-day deadline, must report even when there is no tax to pay, and on a home held at 5 April 2015 can use the gain since that date, a time-apportioned share of the whole gain, or the gain over the whole period.