Estate administration - sale of property and CGT

Dear Forum

I would be grateful for any responses on this:

HMRC Statement of Practice 2(2004) states that:

‘the scale of expenses allowable under Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act (TCGA) 1992 s 38(1)(b), for the costs of establishing title in computing the gains or losses of personal representatives on the sale of assets comprised in a deceased person’s estate, has been revised. The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will accept computations based either on this scale or on the actual allowable expenditure incurred.’

My understanding is that the personal representative can choose whether to use the scale or actual allowable expenditure?

Also, does anyone have any information on what is meant by ‘actual allowable expenditure’? Is it it the legal fees and disbursements (e.g. court fees, valuation fees) incurred to make the grant application?

Thank you for your time,

Owen

Hi Owen

HMRC manual is useful in considering what may be allowable expenditure:

CG15150P - Capital Gains manual: introduction and computation: computation: expenditure: contents

Hi Skippyp

Thank you for your response. I really appreciate your time.

Thanks again

Owen

Owen
I suggest you look at CG30570 to see the current scale, and calculate what allowance this would provide in your case. You will also see that this is based on a proportion of the costs incurred to obtain the Grant ie make Title to the asset concerned, but does not include any costs incurred to administer the estate, so might involve careful costing of your file.
You can then consider whether the actual costs incurred in your case would give a higher allowance, and whether the resulting tax saving would be worth incurring further costs in claiming this - particularly as the manual states that the alternative is only allowable “where it can be proved”.

Dear mullenky

Thank you for your time in responding. I really appreciate it.

Best wishes

Owen