Talk Quesada forum

Hi everyone.
Apologies if this topic has been discussed before but I wanted to know if anything has changed since brexit.
I'm a UK resident but with a holiday bungalow in Quesada.
I'm 60 next year and thinking of selling up in the UK and moving to Spain permanently to retire with my wife.
Does anyone have experience of doing this since Brexit and what will be the tax implications?
I have read that if I sold my house in the UK say in 2022 and rented a house in the UK for a year and then move to Spain in 2023 (a different tax year) then no Capital gains tax would be payable on the sale of my UK home either in the UK or Spain.
Can anyone help guide me as to the best way to avoid paying what would be a considerable sum to the Govt for the gain I have made over the 30 years I have lived in my UK home.
Thank you in anticipation.
Cheers,
CliveyB

As I understand it as long as you're a UK resident when you sell your house you are not liable for capital gains tax. It would be different if you are a spanish resident. We are in the sane position and will make sure we seek our home in the UK before we take up residence in Spain.

You are only liable for taxes in Spain if you have spent 183 days or more in a calendar year (Jan to Dec).
If you take up residency in Spain in, say, March 2022 then the tax return you complete in 2023 will be for the whole of 2022 and all income for that year must be declared.

If, however, you take up residency in, say, October 2022 then you would not have to complete a tax return in 2023 for the year 2022. Your first tax return would be in 2024 for the year 2023.

We did have a poster on here, sorry - can't remember the name - who posted he sold his house in October and said he was told it would not have to be declared as he took up residency at the same time and was not classed as a tax resident for that year.

To make sure, we sold our house in UK in December and then become residents in January which gave us separate years.

As always, check with a solicitor or tax adviser who deals with these things.

The approach as described above is indeed the way around paying that cgt in Spain. It's just a matter of getting your timing right.

I don't think Brexit has any influence on this, as pre-Brexit you would have had the same issue and so do all of us home owners from other EU member states as well.

If the timing schedule is hard to organize for whatever reason or you don't want to move twice then another trick might be to sell your UK home and rent it back from the new owner for the required period of time to skip a year of Spanish income tax. Then move to Spain.

Is it true you don't pay CGT if your pension age??

millies123 wrote:Is it true you don't pay CGT if your pension age??

Only when selling your Spanish property if it has been your main home for more than 3 years.

If you are resident in Spain then you cannot claim your UK property is your main home so that doesn't apply.

You are only liable for taxes in Spain if you have spent 183 days or more in a calendar year (Jan to Dec).

So if you are tax resident in the UK when you sell you will not pay CGT in either country.

JustGinger wrote:You are only liable for taxes in Spain if you have spent 183 days or more in a calendar year (Jan to Dec).

So if you are tax resident in the UK when you sell you will not pay CGT in either country.

That's not strictly true. If you sell your house in the UK in March and move to Spain in the May, your 183 days would be up in the November of the same calendar year so you would be liable for Spanish CGT. If howver you do as I did last year and sell your house in August and move to Spain in October, your 183 days when you become tax liable in Spain would not be up until April in the following calendar year. Therefore you won't be liable for Spanish CGT.

i.e. exactly as Marcliff has said in an above post.

The key is 'tax resident'

marcliff wrote:

millies123 wrote:Is it true you don't pay CGT if your pension age?


Only when selling your Spanish property if it has been your main home for more than 3 years.

Does that depend on whether you buy another Spanish property to be your main home,or is it still applicable if you sell and then move back to the UK ?