Best use of tax allowances for rental properties

[ndobson1b]

Hello,

First post here.....i am looking for some advice on rental income / property ownership.

So i own 3 properties, (Main residence in joint names with my wife and jointly mortgaged, 2 rental properties both in my sole name and with mortgages in my name only).

My wife is currently not working and i would like to make use of her tax allowances as i am a higher rate earner, what are our options? few additional details below:

- Wife is not employed and therefore would not be able to get a BTL mortgage on her own
- Property 1 is valued at 240k
- Property 2 at valued at 275k

What are my options here? reading around the subject i have a couple of options and i wish to avoid ant stamp duty and plan to hold the properties for a long period of time, rental income combined is in excess of 25k per annum.

Thanks in advance
Nick

[SteLacca]

You can gift 50% of the properties to your wife with no SDLT or CGT implications. Gifts between spouses are tax free.

Then half of the income is hers, reducing the tax rate on her share to 20% and introducing an additional £11,000 tax-free element.

[bd6759]

That depends if the lender will allow him to dispose of half the property without making his wife a party to the loans.