Help! Parents bought flat in my name outside UK and now I can't afford stamp duty.

chanz4

Sounds like as keep pedalling says, to avoid tax

tizerbelle

abovesealevel said:

so I've decided to dispose of the flat by gifting it back to my family and paying the Capital Gains Tax on it.

Hang on, you're paying the CGT?  Surely your parents should be covering that cost for you - after all they have had all the benefit of the property?

Rosa_Damascena

tizerbelle said:

abovesealevel said:

so I've decided to dispose of the flat by gifting it back to my family and paying the Capital Gains Tax on it.

Hang on, you're paying the CGT?  Surely your parents should be covering that cost for you - after all they have had all the benefit of the property?

As my sister always says when things work out to her advantage: "family money"!

abovesealevel

tizerbelle said:

abovesealevel said:

so I've decided to dispose of the flat by gifting it back to my family and paying the Capital Gains Tax on it.

Hang on, you're paying the CGT?  Surely your parents should be covering that cost for you - after all they have had all the benefit of the property?

Trust me, I know. I have to fly back on a whim and sign over the flat back to them so that’s another cost as I’m trying to buy my first place. 

I had a few days to get used to the idea and hopefully the CGT will only come to £1K or so.

But oh well, it is what it is! I just want to get rid of it. 

Schwarzwald

As others already said, I think it is a reasonable ask to your parents to cover the tax surcharge as they put you into this position in the first place, without you apparently having any benefit out of it.

Second, probably a good life learning not to ever just sign anything, which consequences you dont fully understand or see through.

Out of curiosity though, if such property is overseas somewhere in Europe, say Greece, how would HMRC ever come across it and find out, if you dont receive any rental income or similar from it? Obviously you should disclose it no matter what.

Owleyes00

It doesn’t sound like your parents bought a flat “in your name”. It sounds like your parents bought you a flat. Time to be assertive about what is rightfully yours and either sell or, as others have said, negotiate parents paying your extra SD if they want to continue enjoying YOUR flat

user1977

Schwarzwald said:

Out of curiosity though, if such property is overseas somewhere in Europe, say Greece, how would HMRC ever come across it and find out, if you dont receive any rental income or similar from it? Obviously you should disclose it no matter what.

Land registers tend to be publicly accessible (or at least accessible to tax authorities), so probably easier for them to find out than other types of self-assessment tax evasion. 

TheJP

abovesealevel said:

Hi everyone,

A few years ago, my parents purchased a flat in a European country (value around 35,000 Euros) and I don't remember why, but they set this up in my name and I signed something to allow them to do that. I have never been to this property, I have never paid anything for it, nor am I or have I received any money for it. 

I am now in the position of buying my first real property in UK and I just realized that I might not be considered a first time buyer. 

I tried to find some information online and saw something about a £40,000 threshold for the higher SDLT threshold, but for me this is unclear what this is referring to. 

I also read something about proving no beneficial ownership, but I am not sure if this applies here. 

I am freaking out a little and can't believe this will jeopardise my first time buyer SDLT or maybe even mortgage chances. Can someone help/give advice? Thank you! 

How old were you when this happened and how long ago did they buy the property? Its pretty shady of your parents to take away your tax relief for their own benefit, its even more shady that they aren't paying up the costs that you now face. 

Whatever happens you'll still have to pay SDLT on the property you are buying in your name.

googler

Who's living in "your" flat? 

Do your parents live there, is it rented out ...?

Mahsroh

At the risk of sounding flippant, based on what i've read this thread, my advice would be to find new parents!