Key Post Wife inheriting shares with capital gains

Duke of Marmalade said:

Anyway, back on topic. Consider the situation of the Dev family: "breadwinner/stay at home partner". In a situation where the breadwinner earned all the money and they lived off her investment income Charlie gave a welcome but unintended bonus by allowing them double the standard rate cut-off, if they so fiddled the ownership of those assets.
Not so for the household living off the breadwinner's pension.
But fair play to advisors who draw their clients' attention to this unintended anomaly.

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I don't understand the connotation of people "fiddling with the ownership" of assets - spouses are entitled to transfer assets between them tax free, it has always been the case AFAIK?

There is no "fiddle" in transferring the beneficial ownership of an asset from one spouse to another - it then belongs to them and if they decide to up and leave, it'll continue to be their asset and their income until a formal divvying out of the assets is done.

Assets being transferred into a dying spouses sole name to rebase for CGT is standard tax advice. Although usually in practice what I see more is people thinking of doing transfers into joint names after being diagnosed with a terminal illness to avoid having to take out probate but then being advised not to do it so that the spouse inheriting can sell or transfer on to family members without CGT. Also in relation to agri relief it's extremely common for an individual to transfer all assets into the sole name of a spouse to qualify for agri relief, either in advance of a transfer or in advance of a valuation date. If you watched tv last night and saw the increase in agricultural land prices...that is partly because of the use of agri relief to pass on wealth which is a fairly common wealth planning measure.

Investment income flows from ownership of an asset. I can’t allocate a portion of my salary or my pension income to my wife because she can’t become the owner of those. They’re separate and distinct things. Investment income can be reallocated because the underlying assets (e.g. shares or a building) can be transferred relatively easily. It’s a red herring and a non-issue.

Gordon Gekko said:

Investment income flows from ownership of an asset. I can’t allocate a portion of my salary or my pension income to my wife because she can’t become the owner of those. They’re separate and distinct things. Investment income can be reallocated because the underlying assets (e.g. shares or a building) can be transferred relatively easily. It’s a red herring and a non-issue.

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I am talking about a tax form. Married couples have the choice in their tax form of saying their income is joint or is individual, though the Revenue will have pre-populated it to give the optimal results.
Prior to Murphy married couples had no choice - their income was deemed jointly owned no matter who actually earned or owned it. Look it is a little "loophole" which would have been removed if it didn't involve digging up the whole patio. No need to feel guilty for recommending it even if it is against the spirit.
I think we have said enuff on this but you are welcome to the last word.