Make the history behind a capital gain easier to assess.

Establish what changed hands and when

Capital gains work depends on the history of an asset, not simply the money arriving in your bank account. Yudey can help organise a record review before a qualified tax professional assesses the transaction. We begin by identifying the asset, the owners, the dates and the nature of the event. A sale, gift, transfer or other change should be described accurately, with documents supporting the explanation.

This service is concerned with preparing and reviewing evidence within an agreed scope. It does not promise that a gain exists, that a relief applies or that a particular amount of tax will be due. Official guidance describes the records relevant to Capital Gains Tax. ^[1] The calculation and reporting requirements must be assessed against your circumstances and the rules applying to the event.

Reconstruct the acquisition trail

Older assets often arrive with incomplete paperwork. We can build a document register covering purchase agreements, broker statements, completion statements, probate information and earlier professional calculations. The register distinguishes an original record from a later estimate or recollection. Where evidence is missing, the query list identifies the institution, adviser or other person who may hold a useful copy.

For investments, a platform's current dashboard may not show transfers from an earlier provider, reorganisations or transactions outside that account. For property, the purchase price alone may not explain the whole acquisition history. We record those gaps for assessment instead of treating an opening balance as conclusive. Any valuation work or specialist reconstruction is separately identified before it is commissioned.

Link disposal proceeds to the underlying transaction

The review can compare the contract, settlement statement and funds received. This helps explain charges deducted before payment, staged consideration or amounts held back after completion. A bank receipt can be useful evidence, but it may not answer every question about the relevant value or date. We retain the distinction between what the documents state and what still requires professional interpretation.

If the transaction involves a connected person, an inherited asset or a non-cash exchange, mention it at the outset. These circumstances may change the questions a tax adviser needs to consider. The working file should preserve the original transaction documents and a clear description of the relationship between the parties. It should not replace a documented value with an unsupported figure chosen to produce a preferred result.

Separate potentially relevant costs from unsupported totals

We can organise legal bills, transaction charges and expenditure relating to the asset into a traceable schedule. Each entry should identify the supplier, date, purpose and supporting document. Where one invoice covers several assets or both personal and asset-related work, the allocation is recorded as a question. A clean schedule makes review easier without deciding that every listed amount is allowable.

Property improvements, investment adjustments and earlier losses may require further records. Explain whether costs were previously used in another calculation or included in business accounts. The professional review should consider the interaction before an amount is reused. We also preserve contradictory evidence rather than removing it from the file, because a reliable assessment depends on understanding the transaction as it happened.

Agree the calculation and reporting boundary

A record review can finish with an organised evidence pack and technical questions, or form part of a separately agreed calculation engagement. The quotation explains which output you are purchasing. If filing is needed, the responsible professional, authority, approval steps and submission responsibilities should be confirmed. A tidy spreadsheet alone is not confirmation that all reporting obligations have been met.

Tell us about earlier disposals in the same period, residence changes and any deadline already identified by an adviser. Those facts help define the review but do not establish the answer automatically. Urgent reporting, historic corrections and correspondence with HMRC may require additional work. We record those dependencies so a limited evidence exercise is not mistaken for complete management of your tax affairs.

Receive a usable handover and next-step list

The agreed output can include a transaction chronology, source index, cost schedule and open questions. It should show which facts you have confirmed and which amounts remain provisional. That distinction helps you and your tax adviser decide what must happen before a calculation is approved. It also gives future reviewers a route back to the underlying records rather than an unexplained final number.

Fees depend on asset types, transaction volume, historical gaps and the need for specialist input. Request a quotation with the disposal date, asset description and a summary of available records. Avoid sending full account statements through the initial form. We can then agree the preparation scope, document exchange and professional assessment needed, with charges in pounds sterling and external costs clearly separated.