If you completed the sale of a UK residential property on or after 27 October 2021 and made a taxable gain, you must report it to HMRC and pay any Capital Gains Tax due within 60 days of completion. Miss that window and penalties start to apply promptly. Non-residents face the same 60-day rule even when no tax is owed.
TL;DR:
- Non-residents must report every UK residential property disposal within 60 days, regardless of whether a capital gain or loss occurs or if they file Self Assessment.
- The 60-day reporting period starts on the completion date, not the exchange date, and includes weekends and holidays, making timely planning crucial.
- HMRC needs detailed information, including property address, purchase and sale dates, costs, and reliefs claimed, with careful apportionment for mixed-use properties.
- Missing the deadline incurs penalties and interest, with late filings starting at £100 plus ongoing charges, so early preparation and professional assistance are highly recommended.
- Completing the report involves setting up a separate digital account, submitting the accurate return before day 60, and paying using the provided reference, with delays risking penalties and interest accumulation.
Table of Contents
- What is CGT 60 day reporting and who does it catch?
- When does the 60-day clock actually start?
- What information does HMRC need on the return?
- How do you actually submit a CGT report within 60 days?
- How do you pay the CGT once you’ve reported it?
- What happens if you file or pay late?
- What about non-residents, joint owners, trusts and estates?
- What’s a realistic 60-day checklist after completion?
- Concorde Company Solutions’ perspective and common client cases
- How Concorde Company Solutions Limited can handle your CGT return
- Sources
- FAQ
What is CGT 60 day reporting and who does it catch?
CGT 60 day reporting is the requirement to tell HMRC about a taxable gain on UK residential property, and pay any tax due, within 60 days of the sale completing. It sits entirely outside your annual Self Assessment cycle, which trips up more sellers than almost any other property tax rule.
Whether you’re caught depends on your residency status:
- UK residents only need to report if CGT is actually due. If your gain is fully covered by Private Residence Relief or falls within your annual exempt amount, there’s nothing to file. Where tax is due, you report it via the Capital Gains Tax on UK property account.
- Non-residents must report every disposal of UK residential property within 60 days, even if no tax arises, a loss is made, or you already file Self Assessment.
- Trustees and personal representatives carry the same 60-day duty on behalf of a trust or estate, and someone within that structure needs to own the task.
- Joint owners each report their own share separately. This gets genuinely awkward when one owner is UK resident and the other lives abroad, because their obligations differ even on the same sale.
When does the 60-day clock actually start?
The date that matters is legal completion, not exchange of contracts, and getting this wrong is one of the easiest ways to miss the deadline entirely.
- Completions on or after 27 October 2021 carry a 60-day reporting and payment deadline.
- Completions between 6 April 2020 and 26 October 2021 fell under the older 30-day rule, which still catches out sellers relying on outdated advice found online.
- Day zero is the completion date itself, when the buyer becomes the legal owner. The 60 days run continuously from there, including weekends and bank holidays.
- Practical starting point: treat completion day as day one of your countdown and work backwards from day 60 to set your own internal deadline, ideally with a five-day buffer built in.
Confusing exchange with completion is a surprisingly common error. Exchange locks the buyer in; completion is when money and keys change hands, and it’s the only date HMRC cares about here.
What information does HMRC need on the return?
Gathering the right paperwork before you open the online form saves hours. HMRC’s return asks for specific fields covering dates, values, costs and reliefs, and missing any of them stalls submission.
- Full property address and postcode
- Date of acquisition and date of disposal, plus exchange and completion dates
- Acquisition value and disposal value
- Allowable costs: purchase costs (legal fees, stamp duty), selling costs (estate agent and legal fees), and capital improvement costs (extensions, not routine repairs)
- Reliefs being claimed, including Private Residence Relief, lettings relief where it still applies, or relief for periods of business use
Where a property mixes residential and non-residential use, only the residential element goes on the return. You need to work out that apportionment before you start, because the digital service has no way to split it once submitted.
Pro Tip: Keep every improvement invoice from day one of ownership, not just from the sale. Sellers routinely lose thousands in allowable costs because they can’t evidence a kitchen extension from eight years ago.
How do you actually submit a CGT report within 60 days?
The process runs through a dedicated digital service, separate from your normal tax account, and it catches out people who assume it’s buried inside Self Assessment.
- Set up a Capital Gains Tax on UK property account on GOV.UK, which is distinct from your personal tax account login.
- Complete the online return with your calculated gain, dates, and reliefs, then submit it before day 60.
- If you’re using an accountant, they submit through their Agent Services Account, but they first need you to authorise them, a step that itself can take several days, so start early.
- If you’re digitally excluded, you can request a paper form, but processing is slower and acceptance is limited to genuine cases where online filing isn’t feasible.
- Once submitted, HMRC issues a 14-character payment reference number starting with the letter X. You cannot pay without it, so check your inbox or letter carefully.
Agents can meaningfully reduce risk here, particularly around the authorisation delay that catches sellers who leave things until week eight.
How do you pay the CGT once you’ve reported it?
Reporting and paying are two separate actions, and both have to happen inside the same 60 days, so ticking off the return alone isn’t the finish line.
- Use the 14-character payment reference HMRC issued after submission. Get one digit wrong and your payment can sit unallocated while interest quietly accrues.
- Pay by bank transfer, online banking, or through your bank, allowing enough time for funds to clear before day 60, not on it.
- Don’t wait for a bill. This is a self-calculated payment; HMRC won’t chase you with a demand before the deadline passes.
- If you genuinely can’t pay in full, contact HMRC promptly about a Time to Pay arrangement rather than staying silent, which only adds penalties on top of the tax itself.
What happens if you file or pay late?
Missing the deadline is expensive, and the charges stack quickly rather than arriving as one manageable bill.
A late CGT PPD return normally attracts an initial £100 penalty, rising to further percentage-based penalties after six and twelve months, on top of daily interest on any unpaid tax, and ICAEW guidance stresses preparing the return and payment plan well before the 60 days expire because the cycle sits outside Self Assessment entirely.
The most frequent errors we see aren’t exotic. They’re basic: overclaiming Private Residence Relief for a period the seller didn’t actually live there, transposing exchange and completion dates, forgetting to strip out the non-residential element of a mixed-use property, or simply losing receipts for improvement costs. Each one can trigger an HMRC enquiry long after the 60 days have passed. Checking your figures twice, or getting a second pair of eyes on the calculation, costs far less than a penalty and interest combined.
What about non-residents, joint owners, trusts and estates?
A handful of situations don’t fit the standard resident-seller pattern, and each has its own wrinkle worth knowing before you file.
- Non-resident sellers report within 60 days regardless of tax due, and where a later Self Assessment return is filed, the reference number from the CGT return should be carried across to SA108.
- Joint owners file separately for their own share, and a couple where one partner lives overseas can end up with two entirely different obligations on the same sale, one mandatory regardless of tax, one only if a gain arises.
- Trusts and estates need a clearly designated person, usually the trustee or personal representative, responsible for filing within the same 60-day window.
- Self Assessment overlap: if your Self Assessment return is filed and the tax paid within the 60 days anyway, a separate CGT PPD return generally isn’t needed, though this is the exception rather than the rule for most sellers.
What’s a realistic 60-day checklist after completion?
Working to a rough timeline, rather than scrambling in week nine, is the single biggest thing that prevents a missed deadline.
- Days 0 to 7: Gather completion statement, purchase documents, and improvement invoices. Contact your accountant if you’re using one, so authorisation can begin.
- Days 8 to 30: Draft the gain calculation, confirm which reliefs apply, and check whether any element of the property needs splitting out as non-residential.
- Days 31 to 60: Finalise the figures, submit the return, obtain your payment reference, and get funds cleared with several days to spare.
- Any point you’re unsure: get professional input before you file rather than after. Correcting a submitted return is far more painful than getting it right first time.
Pro Tip: Don’t wait for your solicitor to send final completion paperwork before starting the calculation. Estimate using the exchange contract figures early, then refine once completion documents land.
Concorde Company Solutions’ perspective and common client cases
I’ve watched clients come to Concorde Company Solutions Limited after getting a Private Residence Relief claim wrong, or realising on day 55 that they hadn’t started. Both are fixable with the right advice fast. We handle these calculations regularly for local sellers who’d rather not gamble with HMRC deadlines.
— David
How Concorde Company Solutions Limited can handle your CGT return
Sorting a CGT 60-day return yourself means learning a new HMRC portal, calculating a gain correctly, and hoping you haven’t missed an allowable cost, all within a fixed window that doesn’t bend for anyone. Concorde Company Solutions Limited is the alternative to working through that alone: as the number one accountancy practice in Garforth, Leeds, we calculate the gain, check your Private Residence Relief position, prepare the return, and handle submission and payment so the 60-day clock never becomes a source of stress.
We support sellers across Garforth and Leeds, whether you’re a UK resident selling a second home or a non-resident disposing of a UK property from abroad. If you’ve recently completed a sale, or you’re exchanging contracts soon, get in touch now through our tax returns compliance guide to book a review of your CGT position before the clock runs out.
Sources
This guide draws on official HMRC guidance and professional tax commentary. For the primary rules, see GOV.UK’s page on reporting and paying Capital Gains Tax on UK property sales. Non-resident sellers should also consult HMRC’s non-resident guidance and Helpsheet HS307. For professional-level commentary, ICAEW’s tax faculty guidance covers the interaction with Self Assessment and common pitfalls. Read Concorde Company Solutions Limited’s own breakdown of the 60-day rule for further detail on how we support clients through the process.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
FAQ
Does selling land need to be reported within 60 days?
Yes, if the land counts as UK residential property and a taxable gain arises, it falls under the same 60-day reporting and payment rule as a house or flat sale.
What is the deadline for reporting capital gains in the UK?
For completions on or after 27 October 2021, you have 60 days from completion to report and pay any CGT due; completions between 6 April 2020 and 26 October 2021 used a 30-day deadline.
How do I report capital gains on my tax return in the UK?
UK residents who owe CGT report it through the Capital Gains Tax on UK property account within 60 days, separately from Self Assessment, though the figures may also need including on your annual return.
What is the 30-day rule for capital gains in the UK?
The 30-day rule applied to property completions between 6 April 2020 and 26 October 2021; it was replaced by the current 60-day deadline for any completion on or after 27 October 2021.
Do I need an accountant to file a CGT 60-day return?
It isn’t legally required, but experienced accountancy practices regularly help sellers avoid errors on relief claims and missed deadlines that trigger penalties.
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