I have a client who has had a house in London for 20 years, lived in it for 10, let for the last 10.
He married his long-term partner a couple of years ago and is now thinking of selling the London property. There is about a £500k gain.
Can he now gift half the property to his wife and then sell it thereby gaining her annual exemption, most of her basic rate tax band and another lot of lettings relief ?
Many thanks
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Replies (11)
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Your client has a potential £500K chargeable gain. Clearly you don't have the expertise to advise him. So your only course of action should be to suggest to him to seek expertise elsewhere. But if instead you want to rely on any advice you get here I would strongly suggest that you have a close look at your P.I. cover first.
If they are not living in the property together as a married couple when the transfer is made, half the PPR and lettings relief would be lost (though the annual exemption and BR band would be gained). But with that size gain, as others have said, it is probably sensible to take advice from a tax specialist.
Cathy
There is at least one way to potentially eliminate the entire gain via a gift to wife of the entire property.
Justin
Surely a gift to the wife would mean that her base cost would be equal to husband's original base cost, not value at date of transfer-regardless of date of transfer.
I suggest that you search this forum as this has been discussed before (many times I recall).
