New queries, issue 4598

New life

Postponing property sale to minimise capital gain when non-UK resident.

My husband and I are starting a new life in Malta from July and plan to move there for an indefinite period. We have purchased a home there and my husband has a two-year full-time contract of employment. We are not planning to return to the UK in the next five years other than for the occasional holiday.

I understand that we would qualify for the status of non-UK residents on a split-year basis in 2017-18 and in full in 2018-19.

We wish to remove as many ties as possible with the UK and plan to sell a London residential property which we have owned for 18 years and which has been rented out for the past 13 years.

Our initial intention was to dispose of the property before we leave the UK but ...