How do I use untied for capital gains or losses? And what's a capital gain anyway?

Introduction

What's a capital gain or loss?

If you buy something valuable (which could be property or an investment) and then sell it, you could make a profit or loss. The something valuable is a capital item. And the profit or loss is a capital gain or capital loss.

A capital item could be shares, a painting or a property (but not usually your main home). If it could be subject to capital gains tax, then it is called a chargeable asset.

It is not stuff that you buy and sell as your trade.

Do capital gains or losses appear on my tax return?

For many people capital gains won't appear on your tax return.

You will pay capital gains if your gains exceed an "annual exempt amount" of £3000 (since 2024/25).

Even if your gains are below this amount, you need to report your gains in your tax return if you're registered for self assessment and the total amount you sold the assets for was more than £50,000, or if you have losses.

If losses reduce your gain to the tax-free allowance, you can carry forward the remaining losses to a future tax year.

Note: what is a chargeable asset?

• most personal possessions worth £6,000 or more, apart from your car
• property that’s not your main home
• your main home if you’ve let it out, used it for business or it’s very large
• shares that are not in an ISA or PEP
• business assets

60 day reporting obligations - residential property

There are obligations to report the sale of residential property to HMRC using a special process within 60 days. The details also get included on your tax return.

In MTD

Navigate to Other Income & Claims, and scroll down. (If you are in the Mobile app, this is via the Taxes tab)

You will then see a Capital Gains section. HMRC are changing the information that is required so the screens may not look as they appear below.

Not in MTD

Capital gains and losses are supported in untied through forms.

In the untied mobile app

You can find capital gains in the app by navigating to: Taxes > Prepare your Tax Return > Income Details > Capital Gains

In untied Pro in the browser

Capital gains can be found via Tax Forms > Schedule SA108 - Capital gains

What's this got to do with capital allowances?

Don't get caught out by similar language.

For most of your assets, capital gains and capital allowances have nothing to do with each other.

Capital allowances relate to long term things used in a business, like plant and machinery and are a way of spreading the cost of the purchase for tax purposes. Come to the wrong place? Capital allowances are here.