Capital Gains when Living Abroad

My Partner has been living abroad since November 2006. Since leaving private residence in Ireland, the house has been vacant, It has been on the market for the past 6 months and now there is a sale agreed and contracts to be signed in next couple of weeks.
What is the situation re. Capital Gains Tax as this is the only property owned.
Any advice appreciated.

If the property was your partner's principal private residence throughout the period of ownership and it only consisted of the residence and gounds not exceeding one acre, then no CGT would arise on the sale. The last 12 months of ownership of one's PPR are deemed residence ( to allow for situations where one is moving house etc. )

See points 12 and 18 on the following for further information.
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As your partner has been out of the house for over 12 months, there will be some CGT payable. To minimise this, you should try to have unconditional contracts signed as soon as possible (as the contract date is the disposal date for tax purposes).

Any CGT due will be payable by 31 October 2008.

However, if the sales price is over €500k, your solicitor may have to retain and pay over the CGT immediately (otherwise the other party will withhold 15% of the sales price).

My apologies, I had read the OP as November 2006 thinking it was last November, i.e. November 2007 , at which point I thought there was only a couple of months gone. Nige, is obviously correct in that calculation. Still can't get used to 2008 !!.

Hi Guys,

I reviewed the Revenue.ie website on Capital gains and there is a statement as follows:
"A period of up to 12 months immediately before the end of the period of ownership is treated as a period of occupation even though the owner may not have been actually living in it during that period. In addition to this 12 months the following periods of absence from the house are also regarded as periods of occupation provided that before and after those periods, the house was the owner's only or main residence and that throughout those periods he/she had no othere house eligible for exemption
1) any period throughout which the individual was employed outside the State"

Based on this information from Revenue.ie, it would seem that my partner is exempt from Capital Gains on the sale of this property - as the contract has been signed this week.
If this is the case - does a return still need to be completed or what is the process??
Thanks for Help

The exemption for periods spent in employment outside the state only applies if the seller lived in the house both immediately before and after the foreign employment. As this person will not be returning to live in the house before it is sold, the exemption doesn't apply and so a small portion of the gain will be subject to Irish CGT.

Ok Thanks Nige, Now its clear.

Is it form CG1 that needs to be submitted. Can I do this by myself or do I need to do it via an accountant.
What would you suggest. Also who calculates the Gain and what is owed as CGT.

You could do it yourself but as this doesn't seem to be your area, as such, I'd suggest you get an accountant to do it. Maybe your solicitor could recommend someone for you.

Op, if your partner is still living abroad, the solicitor is obliged to make sure the tax is paid from the sale proceeds

Does this mean that the Solicitor automatically does the return, Is the person liable for the whole amount??