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

Emmia

Would selling the flat more than cover your extra costs, and give you a nice financial cushion?

I'd either be asking your parents to cover your extra costs, or selling the flat which is fundamentally yours.

abovesealevel

googler said:

Who's living in "your" flat? 

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

I just found out it's being rented out. 

Just to put this out there -- my parents are not horrible people, and we get along OK. They saw an opportunity to pay less tax when they bought this flat and took it without thinking of the consequences. They probably also assumed they were helping me in a weird way by putting a flat in my name if something were to ever happen to them. They tend to be very careless when it comes to big decisions like this and neither one of us considered what would happen a few years down the line.

Also I was quite young when this happened, still in uni, living in a house share and working odd jobs so I had absolutely NO knowledge of personal finance or anything of the sort! 

They do have some money problems right now which is why I'm OK with paying the CGT for gifting the flat back to them. I've chilled out a bit since I wrote this post It's just overall a very annoying situation but it's easily solvable!

TheJP

abovesealevel said:

googler said:

Who's living in "your" flat? 

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

I just found out it's being rented out. 

Just to put this out there -- my parents are not horrible people, and we get along OK. They saw an opportunity to pay less tax when they bought this flat and took it without thinking of the consequences. They probably also assumed they were helping me in a weird way by putting a flat in my name if something were to ever happen to them. They tend to be very careless when it comes to big decisions like this and neither one of us considered what would happen a few years down the line.

Also I was quite young when this happened, still in uni, living in a house share and working odd jobs so I had absolutely NO knowledge of personal finance or anything of the sort! 

They do have some money problems right now which is why I'm OK with paying the CGT for gifting the flat back to them. I've chilled out a bit since I wrote this post It's just overall a very annoying situation but it's easily solvable!

Sounds like they could do with selling the flat!

newsgroupmonkey_

TheJP said:

abovesealevel said:

googler said:

Who's living in "your" flat? 

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

I just found out it's being rented out. 

Just to put this out there -- my parents are not horrible people, and we get along OK. They saw an opportunity to pay less tax when they bought this flat and took it without thinking of the consequences. They probably also assumed they were helping me in a weird way by putting a flat in my name if something were to ever happen to them. They tend to be very careless when it comes to big decisions like this and neither one of us considered what would happen a few years down the line.

Also I was quite young when this happened, still in uni, living in a house share and working odd jobs so I had absolutely NO knowledge of personal finance or anything of the sort! 

They do have some money problems right now which is why I'm OK with paying the CGT for gifting the flat back to them. I've chilled out a bit since I wrote this post It's just overall a very annoying situation but it's easily solvable!

Sounds like they could do with selling the flat!

We're all guessing here, but it could be the opposite - it's their only income!

Mojisola

abovesealevel said:

I just found out it's being rented out.

Shouldn't you be paying tax on the rental income?

SusieT

Mojisola said:

abovesealevel said:

I just found out it's being rented out.

Shouldn't you be paying tax on the rental income?

That would depend on the double tax agreement (if any) with the country that the property is located in. Since the OP is declaring ownership of the property here and taking about paying CGT here, would it be reasonable to assume that tax is being paid in whichever country it is due, by whoever is receiving the rent probably in the foreign country?

gingercordial

Mojisola said:

abovesealevel said:

I just found out it's being rented out.

Shouldn't you be paying tax on the rental income?

Potentially OP should be paying tax on the rental income in the country where the property is located, and also declaring it on their UK tax return but claiming credit for overseas tax paid.  But would depend on the other country and what tax treaty may be in place.  Messy.

This could be regardless of whether OP has ever seen any of the rental income...

saajan_12

gingercordial said:

Mojisola said:

abovesealevel said:

I just found out it's being rented out.

Shouldn't you be paying tax on the rental income?

Potentially OP should be paying tax on the rental income in the country where the property is located, and also declaring it on their UK tax return but claiming credit for overseas tax paid.  But would depend on the other country and what tax treaty may be in place.  Messy.

This could be regardless of whether OP has ever seen any of the rental income...

Would it be regardless of whether the OP has seen the income? 

Imagine if OP lets to parents who sub-let to resident.
- Parents receive income from the resident and pay tax on this, even if that exceeds the rent they pay onwards. 
- OP pays tax on rental income they receive from parents, which in this case is £0. 

steampowered

Why don't you sell the flat yourself and keep the proceeds, minus the capital gains tax?

After all, it's your flat. Just as your parents declared to the authorities.

newsgroupmonkey_

steampowered said:

Why don't you sell the flat yourself and keep the proceeds, minus the capital gains tax?

After all, it's your flat. Just as your parents declared to the authorities.

Already been answered above