Tax Question on second home

[PaulSabin]

I have 2 houses. One I use occassionally and the second I live in.

I am registered with the electoral register as living at the property which is empty. This is because I was toying with the idea of selling it and was not sure about the tax implications of second home ownership. Like would they be subject to capital gains or anything similar? (I have not let it out).

My question is, that I would like to register with the electoral register at my main residential address. Are there any tax implications for me if I sell the empty home? I've heard about something called prime residency relief but I cannot find any information about this.

[kempie]

You need to look into principal private residence (PPR) relief.

A little background here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7517201.st m

[Tom Braider]

Excellent article on kempie's link, except for this bit: "The best way to ensure that HMRC will recognise the property as your PPR is to formally nominate it as such by writing to your tax office to confirm the position. If you have more than one property you should ideally notify the tax authorities as to which is your principal residence for this relief."

You can tell HMRC which of 2 residences is the principal one but if you own 2 properties and only live in one, then that one is your only residence and must therfeore be considered your principal residence.

[kempie]

That point is raised in the preceding paragraph

"There are no hard and fast rules regarding how long you have to live in a property in order for it to qualify as your PPR but the tax authorities will expect it to be a reasonable period and it must have been used as your principal residence - you cannot have just visited the property."