Announced this week in the Autumn Statement 2015 was the plan to change the payment date for Capital Gains Tax(CGT) on residential properties from April 2019 onwards.
As gains on your main residence are currently tax-free then this will apply to those with second properties, particularly buy to let properties.
At present the gain is paid alongside the tax due in the next tax return, so if you sell a property after 6th April it is entered in the tax return to the following 5th April with the tax then due by 31st January the following year – meaning that you do not have to pay your capital gains tax bill for nearly 22 months after the property has been sold.
Under the proposed change this will be reduced to only one month.
We will be waiting for the full details, but one possibility that has also been mentioned is that perhaps an estimated CGT payment will be held back from the sale proceeds and paid directly to HMRC.