who owns my flat?

[scatterbrain]

Can anyone help me on this taxing conundrum

My wife inherited £50K from her father, I used it as the deposit and to extend the lease on a BTL. The property is in my name though as all the equity is hers - can I put the rental income on her tax return ?

(I pay at the higher rate, she does'nt)

Should I put her name on the deeds or is this unnecessary, is there another way?

thanks Tom

[plym77]

Hi

The profits belong to the person who owns the flat, ie you, however, there is a way around it.

Go to your solicitor and have a Declaration of Trust drawn up - it will probably cost a couple of hundred quid, but worth doing. If you put say 1% of the ownership of the property in your wifes name, then automatically the profits will be shared 50:50

If you want more that 50% of the profits to go to your wife, then you will need to do a Declaration of Trust giving her a larger share, and then do a Beneficial ownership form (Form 17) with H M Revenue and Customs match the amount, ie. if you want her to have 99% of profits, Dec of Trust will show her with 99% of ownership and Form 17 submitted to HMRC will show 99% of profits.

It is an oddity with the tax system that unless a form 17 is done any husband and wife joint ownership - in whatever proportion, profits would be 50:50.

Unfortunately you cant just give her 1% and then do a form 17 giving her 99% of income - broadly, profits would be either 50:50 or follow the ownership proportions.

A Declaration of Trust saves going to land registry to change the deeds - alot less hassle.

And I would not suggest putting 100% in her name - retain at least 1% of the property

I hope this helps

Kind regards

Sherena

[scatterbrain]

Sherena - your great

thankyou Tom