Adding husband onto deeds and possible stamp duty

woolythoughts

Hi

I have just bought a property in my own name with a mortgage as we wanted to buy before the old house was sold.

Husband is about to complete on the sale of his property.

Once his mortgage is cleared and the equity is in the bank, I'm paying the money off my mortgage.

I want to add him to the deeds once the mortgage is paid off so there is no hassle should dI be hit by the proverbial bus. 

He is convinced that stamp duty will be payable so there is no point adding him to the deeds and just costing us money.

I cannot find anything definitive to say yes or no.  Only if he "buys" the share - but the money will go in and out of our joint account so he's not buying anything.

Can anyone advise/help?

km1500

there is no stamp duty on gifts so if you gift a share of the house then there is nothing to pay stamp duty-wise. Google stamp duty on gifts.

SDLT_Geek

woolythoughts said:

Hi

I have just bought a property in my own name with a mortgage as we wanted to buy before the old house was sold.

Husband is about to complete on the sale of his property.

Once his mortgage is cleared and the equity is in the bank, I'm paying the money off my mortgage.

I want to add him to the deeds once the mortgage is paid off so there is no hassle should dI be hit by the proverbial bus. 

He is convinced that stamp duty will be payable so there is no point adding him to the deeds and just costing us money.

I cannot find anything definitive to say yes or no.  Only if he "buys" the share - but the money will go in and out of our joint account so he's not buying anything.

Can anyone advise/help?

Is the property you have bought in England, so the relevant stamp duty is stamp duty land tax?

If so, I wonder if you needed to pay the extra 3% on the purchase, because of your husband owning a property?  Perhaps not, if there was a previous sale of a property in which you had lived within the three years before your purchase.
  
If the extra 3% was due, then perhaps it could be recoverable as a result of your husband selling his property.  It would be important that you had lived in that property as your only or main residence at some point in the three years before you completed the purchase of your new home.

AlexMac

When we tidied up our affairs and added my wife as a joint owner of the rental flat which I’d owned for years prior to our marriage, I researched tax or other liability and discovered there was none for transfers to and between spouses. And because I’m idle, we got a solicitor to do it although I suspect it’s possible as a DIY job. So it must be legal, even though that wasn’t even our “primary residence “. 

So while you could consult Dr Google and the HMRC guidance, or even a conveyancing solicitor, I bet it’s still no problem. 

SDLT_Geek

AlexMac said:

When we tidied up our affairs and added my wife as a joint owner of the rental flat which I’d owned for years prior to our marriage, I researched tax or other liability and discovered there was none for transfers to and between spouses. And because I’m idle, we got a solicitor to do it although I suspect it’s possible as a DIY job. So it must be legal, even though that wasn’t even our “primary residence “. 

So while you could consult Dr Google and the HMRC guidance, or even a conveyancing solicitor, I bet it’s still no problem. 

There is no stamp duty land tax exemption for transfers between spouses.  There is a helpful rule though that the extra 3% SDLT does not apply for transfers between spouses who are living together.

woolythoughts

We're in Scotland now - his property was in England.

We avoided the extra tax by getting divorced and splitting up - the reconciled after my purchase went through.

Yes, we could have reclaimed the 25K extra stamp duty but it was 25K we didn't have