Good news - Capital Gains Tax reporting time doubled ...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget has made one small but welcome change to Capital Gains Tax.

For those selling UK residential property, including landlords, the deadline to file a tax return has been extended from 30 days to 60 days - and it’s already come into effect from midnight.

Commenting on the change, Tim Walford-Fitzgerald, Private Client Partner at accountancy firm HW Fisher says: “This is welcome news and it is positive to see that the Chancellor has recognised the reality of these transactions. To anyone selling a property and up against tight deadlines to receive registrations you can breathe easy.”

Just last week the Association of Accounting Technicians expressed its worry about the old 30 day limit.

For accountants to undertake this work on a client's behalf, they need specific authorisation from their client, which must be gained using an agent services account and emailing authorisation links to clients for them to create a Government Gateway account.

As a result, AAT members expressed their concerns about both the incredibly tight timeframe for reporting any CGT liability and a widespread lack of awareness amongst those selling residential property.

Last week Ann White, director of Abacus Accountancy and Payroll Services, backed the ATT case saying: "HMRC hasn't given this enough thought. I can see that they want to get money into the coffers earlier, which isn't necessarily a problem, but a 30-day deadline isn't very long between completing on a property and assessing what the gain is.

“The majority of solicitors I've dealt with also didn't know that this requirement is now in place, and neither do many of my clients – causing them to panic and in some cases have to pay a fine. It's also a long-winded process for accountants to get authorisation for clients to do this."

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