The appellants occupied a flat for the last 25 days of their ownership of it. They claimed private residence relief for capital gains tax purposes on the disposal of the flat (under TCGA 1992, ss 222, 223). HMRC decided that the 25 days’ occupation did not amount to residence of the flat, and amended the appellants’ tax returns to disallow the relief. The appellants appealed.
The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) found on the evidence that the appellants knew when moving into the flat that its sale was proceeding, and that their occupation of the flat would be temporary. On the facts of the case “…the quality of the appellants’ occupation of the flat did not have a sufficient degree of permanence, continuity or expectation of continuity to justify describing that occupation as ‘residence’.”
The FTT considered the case Goodwin v Curtis CA 1998, 70 TC 478 (in which a taxpayer
