House in my name, want to get joint mortgage with parther

Hi,

I currently have a house in my name. I am looking to get a joint mortgage with my partner and transfer ownership of the house to both our names.

Anyone any idea if gift tax etc. is payable????

Claire

Can you tell us how much the house is worth? Is there a mortgage on it currently and how much? And how much of a new mortgage you intend to get?

There are no stamp duty or tax implications on transfers of property between spouses but there are for non marital couples.

mf

Claireb.
If you transfer the house into your partners name (he/she) will have to pay a hefty amount of tax as it will be seen as a gift.
Financially it would be worth while coming to another arrangement like marriage...At least them you will save loads of money...

ZEGAR said:

Financially it would be worth while coming to another arrangement like marriage...At least them you will save loads of money...

Click to expand...

How romantic!!!


Claire

I'd suggest you contact your solicitor. He/She should be able to advise you.

Have been in this boat. Lender will not give you a joint mortgage unless you both own the house. If they did, they would have a liability to someone who didn't legally own the asset. You are a stranger in the eyes of the law so partners cannot "gift" half the house, because that wd make the receiver liable for CGT or CAT - one or the other anyway. Threshold here is something silly like 17K. HOWEVER - you can avail of a law that was essentially created for cohabiting siblings. If the house is your PPR (principle private residence), you have lived there for I think it's 3 years, and continue to live there for another 3 years and own no other property, then he can gift you half of house free of charge i.e. no gift tax. There is no stamp duty payable once the market value of the house is under a certain amount. Once house is in joint names you can re-mortgage. Sounds complicated but it's not if you have a good solr.

Wht would be the case where i bought the house over two years ago and fiance moved in when house was revamped and some improvments done nearly a year later. Now we are looking at moving lender and change the ownership of the house to both our names. Would she now be liable to a tax bill ??

"Would she now be liable to a tax bill ??"

Possibly. You need to post the figures to see value of asset less liabilities and fiance's stamp duty status to see if (a) Gift tax and/or (b) Stamp Duty would be payable. Might be worth waiting until after the wedding! No tax on transfer of assets between spouses.

mf

Yes, she is liable. As mentioned earlier, there is the "3 year rule" designed to benefit siblings and other more distant relatives. Until you have been living together at that address for a proven 3 years, then all duties and taxes must be paid. Marriage is the answer! Or civil partnership, if ever we see it!

Last year, we looked into the same idea. In the end, my partner took a life policy out on me which would cover inheritance taxes in the event of my death. We reckoned that, for now, it was a better option than paying a whack of cash to Revenue and ultimately provides the same security. Once our 3 years is up, we can look at the issue again and discontinue the life policy if necessary.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the responses!
The house is currently worth approx 350k and I owe 120k. If we were getting a joint mortgage we would be looking to borrow 150k.
We have been living here together for four years but have no plans yet to get married (no matter how romantic it sounds!)
I will look into the 3 year rule - it sounds just what we need

mf1 said:

"Would she now be liable to a tax bill ??"

Possibly. You need to post the figures to see value of asset less liabilities and fiance's stamp duty status to see if (a) Gift tax and/or (b) Stamp Duty would be payable. Might be worth waiting until after the wedding! No tax on transfer of assets between spouses.

mf

Click to expand...

Firstly thanks everyone for the responses...
Here are all the details....
I bought the house in october 2003 for 180K. Mortgage of 100K.Outstanding og circa 97K. Alot of work was needed to be done and there was about 30k/35K spent on bringing things up to scratch. Plan was to rent it out as there could be six(at a push) bedrooms, five at least though.
Have not had the house valued but from talking to people(friends) in the know I am thinking it is worth between 320K-350K at this stage.
When I bought the house my partner(now fiance) was in her last year in college so there was no talk of moving in together or anything at that stage. Soon after finishing college summer 2004, she got a good job and we decided that we should move in to the house. That happened in November 2004.
We recently got engaged and will be getting married March 07. Am currently looking into moving mortgage provider from BOI for various reasons (See this thread) and would also be looking to get partner name on the house during this process.
Is it during this process that she could be liable to a tax bill ???
Forgive my naiviety but I thought that if we were moving provider it would be like gettig a new mortgage, things would just run normally from there and both names would be able to be put on the house, therfore no tax bill would be applicable.
The house was my first and my fiance has no house so would be classifed as a FTB at this stage