HMRC Form 17 - flat purchased before marriage, now renting out - is this applicable?

JLKim

Help! I'm filing in my tax return (very late in the day) and i'm going through my usual checklist. I've just come across a note on an advice portal on HMRC Form 17, which i'd never heard of. My situation:

I bought a flat in 2014 which I lived in, I then got married in 2018 and I then bought a house with my husband in the same year, and started renting my flat out, and have been submitting Self Assessment tax returns ever since. I have been doing this solely on my Self Assessment account, as I bought the flat and I do all the management etc. I never occurred to me that my husband would have to fill in a tax return for this? Have I being doing the wrong thing for 5 years? All the advice on HMRC is actually quite heard to understand and doesn't provide scenarios where one person has purchased a property and then married, most examples are on joint ownership from the get-go.

Any help appreciated!!!

Slinky

What names are on the tenancy agreement? Just yours? Or yours and your spouse?

What is it on the form you are querying?

JLKim

Slinky said:

What names are on the tenancy agreement? Just yours? Or yours and your spouse?

What is it on the form you are querying?

Its my name on the tenancy agreement.

I haven't looked into the form in detail - I think I need to understand whether we should have both been doing tax returns for the last 5 years, or do I need to fill this form 17 in to say that the property is 100%, to reflect the tax returns. In reality as we are married I suppose everything is 50/50 I just didn't appreciate that may mean we both have to fill in a tax return.

anselld

What is on the tenancy agreement is not relevant.  The question is who owns the flat and that is determined by the title document at land registry.  It sounds like it remains in your sole ownership so your tax returns are correct.  Form 17 is only relevant to joint ownership.

You refer to everything being 50/50 when married; in fact that only becomes the default position in divorce that all assets are in the melting pot.  You are perfectly entitled to own assets individually in all other respects.

JLKim

anselld said:

What is on the tenancy agreement is not relevant.  The question is who owns the flat and that is determined by the title document at land registry.  It sounds like it remains in your sole ownership so your tax returns are correct.  Form 17 is only relevant to joint ownership.

You refer to everything being 50/50 when married; in fact that only becomes the default position in divorce that all assets are in the melting pot.  You are perfectly entitled to own assets individually in all other respects.

Thank you for your advice!