Arthur’s Bit: Tax Q&A for investors by Arthur Weller

Q. I own a property jointly with a partner (not my spouse). I am a 40% taxpayer, but my partner is not, so I would like more of the income to be in my partner’s name. But I don’t want to give away any of my 50% share of the property to my partner. Is there anything that I can do about it?

A. Yes. Make a written agreement between the two of you that X% of the property income should from now be attributable to your partner (where X lies between 50 and 100). Then your partner can declare X% of the rental income on their tax return, and you only need to declare (100 less X)%. This does not apply to spouses or civil partners.

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