Changing Shares To Joint Ownership

drlabman

Yet another one - a morbid one this time.  If the shares are in joint names and one party dies, then I believe the ownership can "transfer" to the survivor just by informing Equiniti via a form that's available on their website.  But, let's say I gift half my shares to my wife, so she holds them in her own account, and I die, then presumably it's not so simple to get my shares transferred to her, or to get them sold so that she gets the proceeds.  Does it involve probate in this case (with all the well-documented delays)?

drlabman

It's fair to say I'm confused, which is why I haven't done anything about this yet.  To recap - I have a bunch of shares that I bought while working for my previous company (bought through the Share Save scheme or whatever).  They are in my name only.  I'm looking to add my wife as a joint shareholder (for tax purposes).  I asked Equiniti how to do this and they sent me a form by email.  It's a Stock Transfer form.  There's lots on the form I don't understand - the term "Consideration", stamp duty requirement, and others.  But my fundamental question is: is this the correct form to use?  I don't want to gift/transfer shares to my wife - I want her to be a joint owner.  Or is that the same thing?

drlabman

The more I think about joint ownership the less I understand.  When it comes to dividends, my understanding is that for tax purposes each owner declares their share of the dividend - so if there's 2 joint owners and the dividend is, say £100, each declares £50.  However, the whole dividend, £100, is paid to the first-named, or "senior", shareholder?  At least that's what occurs with my/our National Grid shares.

xylophone

https://www.informdirect.co.uk/shares/joint-shareholdings/

might be of interest.

With regard to "consideration", this means what is paid for the transferred shares - in your case the consideration is nil.

https://www.informdirect.co.uk/shares/how-to-complete-a-stock-transfer-form-in-10-steps/ might help.

drlabman

xylophone said:

https://www.informdirect.co.uk/shares/joint-shareholdings/

might be of interest.

With regard to "consideration", this means what is paid for the transferred shares - in your case the consideration is nil.

https://www.informdirect.co.uk/shares/how-to-complete-a-stock-transfer-form-in-10-steps/ might help.

Thanks.  There's some useful info there but there are still unanswered questions for me.  Am I right in thinking that any dividend is paid to the senior joint shareholder, and it's their responsibility to share it out amongst the others?  And that they declare 50% each (if only two joint shareholders) for tax purposes?

xylophone

https://jacksonlonge.com/tax-rules-jointly-held-assets-by-married-couples-or-civil-partners/#:~:text=It provides that income is,name of only one spouse.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/savings-property/tax-savings-and-investments/joint-income-savings