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question about taxes when buying a house

Hi

I am from Greece and I am looking to buy a house in the UK with my girlfriend.

My father in law (her father) Will pay half of the house price from his account and the rest will be under my name using a mortgage.

His money are in a UK account (It is legal and been through all the money laundering checks to be transferred in the UK).

His daughter (my girlfriend) is a UK resident without any income here .

Because In Greece if the dad wants to donate / gift money to his daughter he has to pay tax.

So we think the best way is me and her dad to buy the house together (under his name) and then he wants to transfer / donate it (the house) to his daughter.

in this situation does he have to pay any tax ?and if yes how much?

Thanks

Reply to
foufis
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Perhaps there is still a tax due in Greece?

The only one I can think of is UK inheritance tax, (subject of course to the amounts involved )should he die within a certain number of years.

I have added uk legal to this discussion.

Reply to
Jake

Stamp duty is payable on the value of any mortgage that is transferred with the gift:

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As there is a sort of hint that the Greek's treat land and cash differently, inheritance tax applies regardless as to whether the gift is property or cash.

Reply to
David Woolley

The rate of inheritance tax depends on the time between the gift and death, dropping to zero after seven years.

Also, if the value of the property increases between the purchase and the gift, there may be capital gains tax to pay on the difference between the notional free market value of the gift and the original purchase price,including allowable costs. If he owns it for a short time, there may well be a notional loss, and there is an annual allowance, for all capital gains.

However, I don't think you should be relying on newsgroup replies here. The international aspects and the attempt to avoid tax mean that you probably need specialist advice that won't be cheap. The Greek authorities may see the chain of transactions as being equivalent to a simple monetary gift.

Reply to
David Woolley

death, dropping to zero after seven years.

While this is true in a strict sense, the taper is very often valueless. Th is is because HMRC make you deduct the earliest gifts from the nil band bef ore the later ones. This means that the tax is zero on those early gifts so the taper has no effect on the tax. But you still lose 100% of the gift 's value from the nil band right upuntil the time when it 'drops off' after 7 years.

Robert

Reply to
RobertL

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