From 6 April 2015 non-resident taxpayers who sell UK residential property have been required to report the gain and pay the Non-Resident CGT due with 30 days of the completion date.

From 6 April 2019 the range of assets that NRCGT applied to was extended to all UK property or land held directly or indirectly by a non-resident. All disposals within the NRCGT regime that completed before 6 April 2020 had to be reported on a simple online NRCGT form within 30 days.

From 6 April 2020 a 30-day reporting regime applies to all UK residential property disposed of by any individual taxpayer or trustee. Non-residents must report the disposal of any type of UK property, not just residential property. However, both UK resident taxpayers and non-residents must now use the new CGT on UK property service, which requires a government gateway ID and password to access it.

Non-residents may have difficulty setting up a government gateway ID as they may not have the necessary ID documents such as a UK passport, driving licence, NI number or a UTR number. If your client falls into this category, they can still create a UK property account by ignoring the boxes asking for the government gateway ID and password. Instead click on “create sign in details” below green box marked “Sign in”. The client needs to enter an email address and the address of the UK property.

Where your client is digitially excluded and doesn’t have an email address, you need to contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300, and ask for a paper form. Unfortunately, HMRC will only send this form to the taxpayer. So by the time it arrives, if it ever does, the 30-day period for reporting the gain may have expired.

Penalties apply for late filing of the NRCGT return and the UK property CGT return. These penalties were suspended for disposals completed before 1 July 2020, but all those disposals need to be reported by 31 July 2020, if there is CGT to pay.