From: "David" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance uk.legal
Subject: Re: Capital gains tax liability on property
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 08:20:07 -0000

"David"  wrote in message
news:iG4pb.4357$3j6.542325@newsfep2-win.server.ntli.net...
> When my mother-in-law went into sheltered housing a few years ago, the
house
> she bought (using assets belonging to her, my wife, and myself) was
> registered in my wife's name, because (a) MIL was in early stages of
> Altzheimer's and (b) it would hopefully avoid the proceeds of the house
sale
> being spent on full-time residential care a few years down the line.
>
> MIL is now sadly in full-time care, and her house was sold last year (with
> my wife being the owner/seller). My wife is now being clobbered for
capital
> gains tax on the proceeds, which hurts!
>
> Hindsight being a wonderful thing, we appreciate that we should have maybe
> organised things differently, eg have me as a joint owner of MIL's home to
> split the liability. But given the situation as it now stands, is there
> anything at all that can be done to avoid or reduce the amount of CGT due?

Thanks for all the replies.

(Unfortunately, John, she moved in after 1988 so no dice there).

One further thought occurs to me... my wife and I have recently got into the
buy-to-let game, and bought our first such property in same tax year as the
flat was sold (ie 2001-2002; so will be declaring this in our imminent tax
return as an acquisition).

Because we've shelled out a substantial sum on the BTL house (which we own
jointly; and from which we won't realise the gain until we sell it, in X
years' time) - is there some way that this outlay can be offset against the
gain my wife made on the flat?

Thanks

David