Irish CGT on proceeds from UK property sale

I'm an Irish resident and taxpayer.
I bought a flat in the UK in 1991 for GBP 62,000 and it was our home until 1998 when we moved to Ireland.

Just sold up for GBP 135,000 and after settling the mortgage have GBP 65,000 left.

Q1. As it was our principle private residence for a time, is this taken into account when calculating CGT ?
Q2. Do my wife and I both get €1,270 CGT allowance or only the main tax payer (me).
Q3. If I kept the money offshore, would I avoid CGT altogether (for now) ?
Q4. I assume that for CGT calculation purposes the mortgage is ignored so the disposal is 135k and the cost of acquisition was 62k leaving a gain of 83k (less selling fees) ?
Q5. How much is a tax accountant going to charge me to calculate the tax liability ?

Thanks in advance !

You may want to check precisely how the disposal of the property is treated from a UK and/or Irish CGT perspective as there may be inter-jurastictional issues depending on your residency/domicile status etc. My comments below deal specifically with the Irish context. [broken link removed] might be of interest to you.

Q1. As it was our principle private residence for a time, is this taken into account when calculating CGT ?

As far as I know where a house was owned for x years, was a PPR for y years and was rented for z years (z-1)/x of any resale gain is assessed for CGT.

Q2. Do my wife and I both get €1,270 CGT allowance or only the main tax payer (me).

If you are joint beneficial owners of an asset then you can use both annual CGT allowances otherwise just one. See [broken link removed] (this deals with shares but the same applies to any capital asset).

Q3. If I kept the money offshore, would I avoid CGT altogether (for now) ?

I don't know but suspect that your liability is triggered on disposal regardless of what you do with the money.

Q4. I assume that for CGT calculation purposes the mortgage is ignored so the disposal is 135k and the cost of acquisition was 62k leaving a gain of 83k (less selling fees) ?

The mortgage is irrelevant. The relevant figures are the acquisition cost (indexed for inflation up to December 31st 2003 if relevant), the value at the time of disposal, any allowable acquisition/disposal/improvement costs, any previously incurred capital losses, your annual CGT allowance(s) etc.

Q5. How much is a tax accountant going to charge me to calculate the tax liability ?

I don't know - sorry.

The [broken link removed] might also be of interest to you.

Disclaimer: I am not a tax expert so if in doubt get .

Excellent answers Clubman, thanks.

I'll still need to consult with an accountant but at least I now have a feel for the scale of the issue.

I had heard that if I used the net gain to repay some of my PPR mortgage here in Ireland then the liability "disappeared". Can't see any mention of that in the Revenue info.

Now I'm off to the Savings and Investments forum for some advice on what to so with the capital.

I had heard that if I used the net gain to repay some of my PPR mortgage here in Ireland then the liability "disappeared". Can't see any mention of that in the Revenue info.

Click to expand...

Not true.

I had heard that if I used the net gain to repay some of my PPR mortgage here in Ireland then the liability "disappeared".

Your CGT liability? Not that I know of. Where did you hear this? Anyway, don't you mean gross gain since net gain is after payment of (CGT) tax?