OK I have to take a deep breath and then ask you not to take what I say as impinging on your own or girl's integrity or anything else. However can I just say that there are a number of matters that you would need to consider including if she is finding £20K in cash for something is this traceable as beign from bonafide earned and taxed monies. Not inferring anything just putting up the flag and whether the money is in fact hers.
The first is that you should not rely on being able to establish that your partner has resided in a property as her main residence UNLESS the occupation has been clearly in the quality of being used as her only or main residence. While time in a property can be a factor the main factor is that the property has been used factually as the main residence.
The second is that husband and wife cannot have more than one main residence at any time.
The third is that if a person has two properties at the same time that are used as their only or main residence then the opportunity is there for the person to elect -within two years of the properties first becoming used as main residences - which property is to be treated from a certain date as the principal private residence (PPR).
Ok if you gift £115K to your partner to buy herself a house for her own occupation then you would have to consider Inheritance tax if you failed to survive 7 years from the gift. If she then buys it and lives in it for the whole period through to sale as her main residence then any gain would be exempt.
Equally as long as she has the property as her PPR at some time then the last 36 months of any gain would be also exempt. Additionally if it was let out after being her PPR she could have the gain that arises in any period of letting exempt by lettings relief.
This enables her to get a further exemption of the gain up to the lesser of
(i) £40,000
(ii) an amount equal to the amount of gain exempt for PPR purposes
(iii) the gain that aroes on a time apportionment of the gain to the period let.
Of course the PPR Main exemption, the lettings relief, and last 36 months will only qualify to the extent that they don't overlap (in other words only one exemption for any particular period)
If you get married (and I trust that you wont use this as an excuse when the leap year proposal comes along) then your partner could not elect for one PPR with you electing for another at any time.
As far as your own property is concerned and while remembering the restriction if you marry you would be entitled to PPR exemption for the period you factually reside in it as your PPR and then of course the last 36 months would also be exempt even if it was empty and soldat the end of the period. Lettings relief could extend the exemption on it up to another £40K if the PPR exemption was greater than that sum.
Lastly watch out for the trap of thinking that if you transfer an asset to your spouse (if the leap year wish works) then she could use (or vice versa uyou could use) your annual exemption allowance presently £9,600 to give a double exemption to £19,200, as you do not acquire anything more than the original cost and date of acquisition of your spouse in an interspouse no gain /no loss transfer.
Yes I nearly forgot there is a further twist that you can adopt in that if you have more than one PPR at any one time you can effectively get the last "36 months and one week" of either property exempt by merely electing for the other property to be your PPR from a date say one year or so before the election and then one week later re-electing for the first property to be your PPR from a date one week later.
Ok I have finishe d war and peace and trust that this will assist you
If you think that it is more than you expected to get please don't feel shy in awarding me a bonus and positive feedback
Tax Preparer
Fully Trained Inspector of Taxes / District Inspector/ Team Leader/ Offshore Consultant/ 41 years
The monies both I and she is using are from dividends from our company ( we are both directors of the company) and have/will/made/declared tax payments for the amounts saved ( both her and I ) so we both can sleep with a clear conscience.
So providing I survive for another 7 years she will be ok . but what if I pop my clogs in Five is there a sliding scale of tax or is the full amount due and what would that amount be approx ?
Can you breal thr following down for me as I have not quite grasped the content fully ( my fault not yours ) quote .......
as long as she has the property as her PPR at some time then the last 36 months of any gain would be also exempt. Additionally if it was let out after being her PPR she could have the gain that arises in any period of letting exempt by lettings relief.
So am I understanding correctly that I can keep electing another property within 36 months 1 week ?and no tax would be due?
Could you break this down in managable chunks and perhaps a simple example ... then perhaps I can grasp it easier ( heavy day today my heads gone , sorry )
Ok will try but you are actually trying to get me to put loads of legislation in one gulp and it isn't possible
Tell you what look up www.taxenquiryadvice.com and phone Bill and I can try talking you through it although my fees are a heck of a lot more than this sites I will give you up to 15 minutes free as if you got me on google
I am 24/7 but wouldn't appreciate a call on this when I have had 3 triple drambuies at 3:00 a.m. unless you can understand me