Joint mortgage but unequal income shares in rental property: can we claim full mortgage interest relief?

[mnbh2]

If H discharged the expense and W did not refund her contribution then W would not be entitled to any deduction.

This seems to create a secondary liability for W to reimburse H?

[mnbh2]

If H discharged the expense and W did not refund her contribution then W would not be entitled to any deduction.

This seems to create a secondary liability for W to reimburse H?

To what extent would the Revenue argue this? If H&W agree that H who has 1% or 0% interest shall pay for the the mortgage and W who has 99% or 100% interest shall pay for other outgoings would this be acceptable arrangement by the Revenue ?

[maths]

There are a number of cases on this point.

For an expense to be deductible it must be incurred by the individual. Thus, if W does not repay H who has discharged her liability then W has not incurred the expense.
H himself cannot deduct the full amount as he can obtain a refund of W's contribution from her.

There is as far as I am aware no specific time limit within which H must reclaim from W. However, were HMRC to investigate W's accounts and find no actual payment of the interest no doubt a denial of a tax deduction would occur.

I fear we may be going down the same route of discussion as occurred a long time ago.

If the agreement between H and W was such that say H incurred losses each year (as expenses always exceeded H's income) then this would no doubt be unacceptable on the grounds H was not conducting a business with a view to making profit.