Relief from capital gains tax: at what point do you own your home, asks Shofiq Miah
- The recent Court of Appeal decision in Higgins v Commissioners for HMRC brings a welcome correction to what looked like a wrong turning taken by the Upper Tribunal.
The case of Higgins v Commissioners for HMRC [2019] EWCA Civ 1860, [2019] All ER (D) 25 (Nov) concerned what is often called ‘principal private residence relief’ in ss 222-223 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (TCGA 1992). The relief is targeted at relieving a capital gains tax (CGT) charge when an individual sells his main or only residence at a gain.
Technical conditions have to be satisfied in order for the relief to apply but for present purposes the focus is that the relief applies in full if the taxpayer has occupied the property as his main or only residence for the whole of his period of ownership. If, by contrast, the property is occupied
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