capital gains when selling property

[zaffy]

I bought my house in 1981 and I am about to sell it.
So I have owned the property for 38 years.
Between October 1989 and April 2001, I let the property.
I think that = 11 years and 6months.
I am living in the property now.
I am trying to get my head around the capital gains that I will owe for letting.
I understand that because my property was bought before 1982 I will have to refer to HMRC for a market value. Please can you explain what why and how the cut off is 1982?
I will be getting an accountant to organise and submit the final details but I would like to try to understand the complications a little.
This is probably one of several questions that I have, as I begin to understand. Thank you

[Amethyst]

You need to use the Market Value of the house as at 31 March 1982 - you will need to fill in a form to get HMRC to check your valuation is accurate but this is a good place to start -> https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/h...bownloaddata but as you bought the year before it should be quite close to what you actually purchased it for. As to why? ... http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...ion/35/enacted

To work out the 'discount' for having lived in the property as your main residence you need to read https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ment-helpsheet and some examples to help ( or confuse) https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...manual/cg64737

so your calc would be 18.5 ( years as main residence)/30 (years owned) so 61% relief I think - Calculator -> https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calcu...nt/properties/

edit: oops...my maths is awful ( obviously I've counted the years wrong - you've owned it for 38 years and let it for 11.5 years so main res for 26.5 so 69% but obvs your accountant will be far better at maths )

[zaffy]

Amethyst, thank you for your response and I have spent a time following the links. Unfortunately, I did not understand any of it. I tried doing the calculation and my calculator tells me I owe the tax man £857,315.78p. Think I'm out of my depth but thank you for trying. I now have a headache.