The 60-day CGT deadline: what happens when you miss it
Penalties, interest, the appeals process, and what HMRC accepts as a reasonable excuse for late property CGT reporting.
The deadline itself
When you sell a UK residential property and a CGT charge arises, you have 60 days from the date of completion (not exchange) to file a CGT return and pay the tax due. The clock starts on the completion date noted on the TR1 form, regardless of when funds settle in your account.
The penalty schedule
- £100 fixed penalty as soon as the deadline passes.
- After three months: £10 a day, capped at £900 over a 90-day window, on top of the £100.
- After six months: a further penalty of £300 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher.
- After twelve months: a further penalty of £300 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher.
- After 24 months, where HMRC believes the failure is deliberate, penalties can rise to 100% of the tax due.
Late payment interest also accrues on the tax itself from the original deadline, currently around 7.75% (HMRC late payment rate, which moves with the Bank of England base rate).
Reasonable excuse appeals
HMRC will cancel late filing penalties where there is a reasonable excuse for the delay. The bar is genuine and unforeseeable: serious illness, bereavement, fire, software failure that prevented submission. Not knowing about the deadline is not a reasonable excuse, regardless of how recently the rules changed.
Where a tax adviser or accountant should reasonably have flagged the deadline and did not, a complaint or claim against the adviser is more likely to recover the penalty than an HMRC appeal. Document the trail.
What network firms do
When a landlord arrives mid-deadline (say, completion happened three weeks ago and they have realised the requirement), a network specialist will usually file the return immediately, alongside a payment of the estimated tax due. The provisional figure is later reconciled in the annual self-assessment, but filing on time is the critical step.
Where the deadline has already passed, the firm will file as fast as the records allow, calculate the penalties to date, and prepare the reasonable-excuse appeal where the circumstances support one. In most cases the £100 fixed penalty is unrecoverable, but the daily penalties (which run quickly into hundreds of pounds) can sometimes be reduced or waived if the appeal is filed promptly and supported by evidence.