self employed and rental property....

this will cover some, but not all of the issues you raise. To cover all would need a book

I am assuming that Scotland is still part of the UK and is subject to the same tax rules as the rest of us

9oaks wrote: »

a rental in joint names.(husband and wife).

by joint do you mean Joint Tenants (ie mandatory split 50/50) or do you mean Tenants in Common with defined shares, which may coincidentally be 50/50 or some other split?

knowing if JT v TIC is important for how you can alter things

did you, or your wife, or you together as a couple ever live in the rental property as your then main/only home whilst (importantly) also being its owner? That has (catastrophic) implications for eventual CGT if you alter the ownership to sole name. If never lived in as main/only home then alteration of ownership has fewer implications

9oaks wrote: »

one of us is due to go pt paye at basic tax and pt self employed, pushing total income into the higher rate tax.
the other is paye at basic rate.
if the higher rate tax payer was removed from the deeds of the rental, then tax is only payable by the paye person @ basic rate----yes??

tax is only payable by the one remaining owner, whether that means they are still basic rate depends on what their total income is...

9oaks wrote: »

also was told that higher rate tax payer can claim say 25% ownership of the rental and so only pay higher tax on this part of the profit.????

depends if owned as TIC.
There is no magic 25% share.

If owned as TIC then the share attributed to each owner should reflect whatever share they own. That is the main advantage of TIC as it can be infinitely manipulated to vary the shares over time. It can be anywhere from 1% - 99% share depending on what makes sense from both the CGT and income tax perspective considered together.

CGT less relevant if never lived in as main home since you are a married couple there altering the shares between the 2 of you does not trigger CGT until you finally sell off the rental proeprty

9oaks wrote: »

also would there be any advantage to having the family home property in the higher rate payers name only- meaning that each person has one sole property.

You are a married couple. For CGt purposes you are one "unit" and have one and only one main home, the one "you" live in. There is no advantage to having the family home in one name and some distinct disadvantages to so doing.

In a nutshell, you cannot have a "his" and "hers" house and expect to get CGT relief on both

9oaks wrote: »

is it worth going down the road of setting up as a ltd company??? this i need to read more about but was mentioned to me.

would require detailed comparison of your respective financial circumstances using actual numbers in total detail - go see an accountant for full and proper advice
in a nutshell for an existing property its very unlikely because of the substantial upfront one off costs incurred with changing ownership of the property from "you" to the legally separate entity of a company