Capital gains tax?

mooch1uk

Hi

I am currently selling a second house. Is it too late to transfer the property into joint names in order to benefit from capital gains tax allowance?

Thanks

k

cash99

Can be transfered to a spouse / civil partner any time up to exchange of contracts, and be valid for cgt.

silvercar

Can be transfered to a spouse / civil partner any time up to exchange of contracts, and be valid for cgt.

corrected info:

Has to be a spouse or civil partner.

If you have owned it for 10 years you will get relief based on how long you've owned it. Transfering it to a anyone other than your spouse / civil partner will mean the other party has not owned their half for any time so there will be no relief on that half of the value.

You will need to balance that against the extra 8.8k CGT relief.

corrected 28/6/06

cash99

silvercar wrote:

check this out!

If you have owned it for 10 years you will get relief based on how long you've owned it. Transfering it to a spouse will mean the spouse has not owned their half for any time so there will be no relief on that half of the value.

You will need to balance that against the extra 8.8k CGT relief.

Per HMRC:

Where an asset which has been transferred from one spouse or civil partner to the other is later sold, the qualifying holding period for taper relief purposes is the combined period of ownership of both spouses or civil partners after 5 April 1998.

The transfer of buisness assets may result in a loss of taper relief.

Petmidget

Can I firstly point out IGNORE silvercar's post, it is simply wrong. Cash 99 has correctly pointed out that in a spousal transfer the period of ownership is cumulative.

You may also wish to investigate lettings exemption worth a maximum £40k (assuming you let it during ownership) and whether a manipulation of Principle Private Residence Relief (a trick that coud exempt the final 3 years of ownership from CGT) is possible.