Second home owners urged to come forward as tax deadline looms

09 August 2013

Individuals have until 9 August to disclose details of any unpaid capital gains tax (CGT) from the sale of second homes, or risk incurring a substantial penalty.

HMRC has written to some 35,000 taxpayers who have not yet registered to pay CGT from the sale of a second home, holiday home or buy-to-let property.

Those who make a disclosure by the deadline then have until 6 September to pay any tax owed, with penalties likely to range from 10% to 20% of the overdue tax.

However, this is significantly lower than the penalties likely to be imposed on those who do not make a disclosure and are subsequently approached by HMRC directly. In such cases, individuals could face a fine of up to 100% or even imprisonment.

Launched earlier this year, the Property Sales campaign is designed to claw back any unpaid CGT from people selling property that is not their main residence, including buy-to-let investments and holiday homes in the UK and abroad.

Marian Wilson, head of HMRC Campaigns, said: ‘Over the last few months we have published articles and written to a lot of people to make them aware of the campaign. As a result, hundreds of people have now come forward. It is not too late for people to contact us.

‘If you have sold a second home you might not know it could attract capital gains tax. If anyone has done this in the past and is unsure, they should look at HMRC’s website and use our simple decision tree to find out if they might owe CGT’.