It depends on why you bought the property, and it changes everything downstream. Buying to hold and let is investment, so profits are property income and a sale produces a capital gain. Buying to refurbish and sell is trading, so the property is stock and the profit is taxed as income with no capital gains treatment. HMRC judges intention on evidence, including how the purchase was financed and how quickly you sold, so the position needs establishing at the outset rather than argued about afterwards.

For a newly built dwelling, the first sale or long lease is normally zero rated. That’s better than exempt, because zero rating still lets you recover the VAT you paid on construction. Existing homes are usually exempt on sale. Commercial property is its own question, and depends partly on the building’s age and whether an option to tax has been made.

Often, yes. Converting a non-residential building into dwellings, or changing the number of dwellings in an existing building, usually means the builder can charge the reduced rate rather than the standard rate on their work. The same reduced rate can apply to renovating a home that’s been empty for at least two years. Evidence of the empty period matters, and the reduced rate is applied by the contractor on their invoice rather than reclaimed later, so it has to be established before work starts.

Letting or selling commercial property is exempt from VAT by default, which sounds helpful but means you can’t recover VAT on related costs. Opting to tax makes your supplies standard rated and unlocks that recovery. It’s usually right where your tenants are VAT registered and can recover the VAT themselves, and usually wrong where they can’t, because it makes you more expensive than the landlord next door. It also binds the property for a long period, so it’s a decision to take advice on rather than tick.

It depends on whether you’re investing or developing, what you plan to do with the profits, and what you already own. Companies avoid the finance cost restriction that applies to individuals letting residential property, but moving property you already hold into one is a disposal, with capital gains tax and stamp duty likely to follow. We’ll model both against your actual figures.

Yes. No need to wait for year end. We manage the handover with your current provider.