mutantpoodle wrote:Its so difficult trying to ask a question without providing so much info that all you experts get bored before replying!!!
Yes - and indeed it's difficult to answer questions without either risking not saying something basic and important, or risking telling the questioner loads of stuff they already know! The only full solution is a 'homing in on the right question and answer' one, with the questioner refining their question and the answerer refining their answer in the light of what's been said.
On tax questions, though, it does cut out a bit of the resulting to-and-froing if the initial question gives some indication of the tax status of the people involved - nothing complicated, just basically what rate taxpayer they are in the UK, plus what other country or countries are involved if it's not all UK-based.
mutantpoodle wrote:So
Yes i understand if I get the house i would be liable to CGT on difference between probate/sale proceeds (proceeds or sale price?) ie sale costs allowable as with shares
What the taxman calls 'incidental costs of acquisition' and 'incidental costs of disposal' are generally allowable for CGT, so yes, the obvious costs of disposal such as solicitor's fees and estate agent commission are allowable. So are any similar costs you or your son incur on acquiring the property when you inherit it (not saying there necessarily will be any such costs, just that there might be - I've no experience of exactly how ownership is transferred in such cases, what exactly the costs are, or who exactly incurs them).
mutantpoodle wrote:No stamp duty as already own property? Or is there because??
If son has by D of V
He is uk tax registered but owns property in portugal
Extra stamp duty?
Stamp duty is payable by the buyer, so paying it is not something either you or your son have to worry about when selling the property.
And as I understand it, it's also not payable when someone receives a property as an inheritance.
mutantpoodle wrote:CGT if he does NOT live in...
But..... NO CGT if he DOES live there....any time requirement?
Any need to prove living there?
There is certainly a need to be able to prove living there - basically, to be able to prove that it is a 'residence' of his. As with most tax matters, in the first instance you just state the facts (e.g. in a tax return, you just state the totals of salary, interest, dividends, etc, without proof in the way of payslips, bank statements, dividend confirmations, etc) but you need to be able to prove those facts if the taxman enquires.
Being a 'residence' of his means that it's a place where he lives, in the generally-recognised sense of living in a property. It's possible to have more than one residence - the classic example is someone who owns a house in a city where they live during the week and a cottage in the country where they live at weekends - but just occasionally visiting a property isn't enough to make it one's residence. See the pages linked to from
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg64420p, especially CG64427 and a few following pages, for some HMRC material about this.
If his Portuguese property counts as a residence of his and he makes the inherited property also count as a residence of his, he will need to nominate one of them as his 'only or main residence' (often called his 'principal private residence' or 'PPR') within two years - this is the property that gets the 'private residence relief' from CGT. If he doesn't nominate one, the question of which one it is will be determined on the facts, i.e. basically where he mainly lives.
If a property counts as his PPR, there is a time restriction on the relief from CGT. The basis of this is that if it counts as his PPR for N% of the period he owns it, then N% of the gain isn't counted for CGT, while the remaining (100-N)% of it does count. It is however important to understand that as long as it is actually his PPR for part of his period of ownership, it can
count as his PPR when working out N% for some limited-but-not-all-that-small periods when he wasn't living there: this can often result in 100% relief from CGT even though the owner only lived in the property for part of the period of ownership. There are several rules about that, with a fair number of detailed conditions, and so I won't try to go into detail about them. Instead, see
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-residence-relief-hs283-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs283-private-residence-relief-2016 in the first instance for them, and the pages under
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg64200c may be useful in resolving anything it leaves unclear. Alternatively, ask a further question here - but in view of the amount of material, much of which probably won't be relevant to you, you will need to narrow down what you're asking about to something manageable!
Gengulphus
