Capital gains uplift on death

Jeremy535897

The idea that simply transferring an asset between husband and wife constitutes "tax avoidance" because it might achieve a greater uplift in a base cost is nonsense. It might make matters worse, if the wife is run over by a bus the following day and the husband confounds the medics. HMRC might look into a case where a transfer was made just before a sale, where the reality of the transaction is that there was a transfer of the sale proceeds, but that is not the case here. Look at example D17 in Part D.

[Deleted User]

Jeremy535897 said:

The idea that simply transferring an asset between husband and wife constitutes "tax avoidance" because it might achieve a greater uplift in a base cost is nonsense. It might make matters worse, if the wife is run over by a bus the following day and the husband confounds the medics. HMRC might look into a case where a transfer was made just before a sale, where the reality of the transaction is that there was a transfer of the sale proceeds, but that is not the case here. Look at example D17 in Part D.

Have to agree! Otherwise, where does one draw the line?

Is forming a partnership with one’s spouse in order to avoid higher rate liability tax avoidance? 

Is transferring one-tenth of one’s personal allowance to a spouse tax avoidance? 

Is paying more into a pension to avoid HR tax, loss of personal allowance, loss of child benefit etc tax avoidance? 

One can take advantage of the rules just as readily as be restricted by them.