Why Can't You Gift a House?

booksurr

ReadingTim wrote: »

If you gift someone £10 cash, yes they get £10. Yes, that small sum is "free".

However, if you gift someone £10,000,000, then that large sum is not "free". There is tax. Just like property.

if you gift someone a sqadzillion £ or just £1 there is no tax to pay if the gift is of money

THERE IS NO TAX ON CASH GIFTS IN THE UK
it is not income for the recipient, so is not subject to income tax, it is cash, not an asset, so there is no gain to be taxed for the donor. The only time a cash gift has tax implications is in respect of Inheritance Tax, but that tax is paid by the estate of the deceased so they really don't care by then (I won't go into the very niche circumstances where the recipient has to pay the IHT as those are such specific circumstances you can google them yourself)

the OP is also incorrect to think that property is "always" taxed, it is NOT.

There are only 2 types of property:
a) that which you live in yourself
or
b) that which you own but do not live in yourself

if you give you house that you live in to anyone for free then no tax is payable on that gift at that time by either the donor or the recipient. If the donor continues to live there then that has IHT implications on their death. If you don't live in it after giving it away for free then there are zero tax implications providing you do not die within the next 7 years - and if you do the tax implications are IHT so you are dead and don't care anymore.

Other than that, such a property gift is tax free so I really don't know what the OP is going on about as they certainly did not explain themselves properly, nor is there always tax on a property gift like they seem to think.

booksurr

SuzieSue wrote: »

Most other assets such as cars don't have a useful life of over 50 years.

not quite.

Whilst you are correct that the 50 years lifespan applies to personal possessions, a personal car is expressly excluded from that definition and is therefore why "classic" cars are used as an investment by some people since they are exempt from CGT

CGT also only applies if the possession being sold is valued at more than £6,000. below that level and there is no tax to pay anyway, no matter if it has gained in value from its original purchase price.

booksurr

steampowered wrote: »

although I accept that the stamp duty on property transfers is larger than the similar taxes on other types of asset.

you are incorrect

OP expressly states that the property is a GIFT

SDLT applies only where "chargeable consideration" is EXCHANGED

where you give a property away for free the donor gets nothing back in return therefore there is no exchange and no SDLT liability

AnotherJoe

anotheruser wrote: »

It appears I didn't explain myself properly... or people didn't understand:

Why can't you gift property for free.
If I give someone £10, they get £10. If I give someone a car, they get the whole car, no other payment necessary.

But with houses, there is always the tax payment. It's this that I don't understand. With everything else (that I am aware of), it's free... a gift. With property, it's never free.

What tax are you referring to because as far as I can see, that statement, like your original, is also incorrect.

AnotherJoe

ReadingTim wrote: »

If you gift someone £10 cash, yes they get £10. Yes, that small sum is "free".

However, if you gift someone £10,000,000, then that large sum is not "free". There is tax. .

No, there isn't.

Freecall

ReadingTim wrote: »

.... if you gift someone £10,000,000, then that large sum is not "free". There is tax.

I give up.

What is the Tax called?


Maybe the tax in question is an example of an 'alternative fact'.

..