PPR(s) for married couple

lisyloo

Can a married couple have 2 PPRs?
In this case there would be 2 employment contracts in different cities.
We would be spending week days (5 nights) aparts and weekends together - alternating location at weekends.

Is there a reference for what is required so I can check whether our situation would qualify?

TIA

p00hsticks

No, unless you're separated.

From page 3 of the following
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/323679/hs283.pdf

If you are married or in a civil partnership and you are not separated from your spouse or civil partner, you can have only one main residence between you. If, when you married or registered as civil partners, you each owned a residence and you have continued to use both residences, you can nominate jointly which is to be the main residence, and the two-year period for doing so begins on the date of marriage or registration as civil partners. If you are separated, each of you may have a different only or main residence
and each may be entitled to relief on any gains arising on the disposal of the residence(s).

CLAPTON

it's pretty clear that married couple can have only one PRR at any one time although they can swap them


have you considered divorce?

booksurr

I appreciate you haven't asked this but just in case do bear in mind that you cannot claim single person council tax reduction / discount on either property as you remain, for CT purposes, a couple with a marital home.

The other property is therefore classed as a second home and so may or may not attract whatever discount is given by that specific council for second homes. Many councils do not give any discount at all so you could face 100% CT on both properties

WHA

You'd probably be best to make an election to HMRC that one of them is your "marital home" and then you can vary the election every few years, so that both will be exempt for at least part of the period of ownership, which will usually mean less CGT overall when they're both sold. Even more important if you have any thoughts of renting out one or both of them in the future as you'd then also get lettings relief for CGT which wouldn't have been available at all if neither of your "homes" were your main residence for CGT purposes for at least some of the time you owned them.

lisyloo

You'd probably be best to make an election to HMRC that one of them is your "marital home" and then you can vary the election every few years

One of them would be in London where house prices are rising considerably faster than elsewhere, so that may affect the choice.

lisyloo

have you considered divorce?

First I thought that was a joke, now you've got me thinking about it seriously.

I'm a director of his limited company and currently receive dividends at a low tax rate, so we'd lose certain benefits.
My gut feel is that we'd lose more than we'd gain, especially on pensions/death benefits for spouses (I was reading recently about one gay guy who missed out on very significant pension benefits because he didn't qualify).

But hey - that really is thinking outside the box.