From: Ronald Raygun 
Subject: Re: Capital gains - main residence
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:59:35 GMT

Clifford Frisby wrote:

> Nevertheless, if I go along with it for a moment, then you seem to be
> saying that the criterion for someone to use when deciding whether it is
> necessary to notify the revenue of a disposal(s) is NOT either of these:
> (a) my disposal proceeds exceeded 4 times the CG allowance,
> (b) I have >0 CG tax due on the disposal(s),
> in which case it must be something else.
> 
> What is that mysterious criterion?
> 
> I'm genuinely interested for practical purposes, not arguing for the
> sake of it.

You need to take into account a third one:
(c) I am entitled to 100% private residence relief, because the property
has been my main or only home throughout my ownership of it with the
possible exception of the last three years.

Clearly, B and C cannot both be true, so there are three cases to
consider:

C is true (and hence B false):  You need not notify.

B is true (and hence C false):  You must notify.

B and C are both false:  This is the only time A matters, and we have
two sub-cases:

A is false:  You need not notify.

A is true:  You must notify.

This last one is actually a silly rule, likely to be unenforceable because
people cannot reasonably be expected to know about it, especially if they
don't already receive a tax return.