Moving abroad/joint ownership of house in Ireland

S

skyway99

Guest
Hi,

I'm moving to a new job in Germany in the next few months. I currently own a house here in Ireland with my brother. To all intents and purposes, he owns it in all but name and lives there with his wife. They look after the mortgage and all the other day-to-day costs. There is no rental income on the property.

What is involved in transferring sole ownership to him? If I gift him my half share, what are the tax implications? Anything else that I need to watch out for?

I don't want a situation down the line where I would be liable for tax if the brother moved house and put this one up for rental.

Thanks in advance.
 
A deed of transfer for natural love and affection is the simplest way. All deeds must be in consideration of some value, but if you put monetary value on it, then the fees and liabilities increase. The deed would have to be presented to the revenue commissioners for stamping but as this would be a "valueless" transaction, they would stamp it exempt. Such transactions are now carried out through e-stamping...
My advice would be to talk to a solicitor based in a large city, where conveyancing might be their key business, smaller one stop shops sometimes are not very good with conveyancing.
If you are not in receipt of rental income, then you cannot be taxed on it, your brother would be entitled to a certain level of rental income before tax would kick in.

Good Luck
 
skyway99 said:
I don't want a situation down the line where I would be liable for tax if the brother moved house and put this one up for rental.

.
Click to expand...

And you'd be right to be worried about that. This website is littered with people in exactly that situation. Have a look at the thread started by Urbanhell for example.

Before you go try and get it sorted, go to a solicitor and see what exactly needs to be done. Your first port of call though is the bank to see will they let your brother and spouse take over the mortgage.
 
Lowsie said:
A deed of transfer for natural love and affection is the simplest way. All deeds must be in consideration of some value, but if you put monetary value on it, then the fees and liabilities increase. The deed would have to be presented to the revenue commissioners for stamping but as this would be a "valueless" transaction, they would stamp it exempt. Such transactions are now carried out through e-stamping...
My advice would be to talk to a solicitor based in a large city, where conveyancing might be their key business, smaller one stop shops sometimes are not very good with conveyancing.
If you are not in receipt of rental income, then you cannot be taxed on it, your brother would be entitled to a certain level of rental income before tax would kick in.

Good Luck
Click to expand...

Do you have knowledge of the law and tax regulations in Ireland to back up this advice.

Do you know that the Revenue Commissioners will not consider this a gift and levy CAT on this transaction.

I would advise the OP to ask a solicitor before taking this advice.
 
I can't advise on the tax implications (there may be stamp duty and/or CAT, and/or CGT but they will depend on your particular circumstances, value of the property etc), but the conveyancing is simple enough - any decent solicitor will be able to do it - even a country one!!.

The biggest issue might be getting the bank to agree to releasing you from the mortgage, especially if negative equity is an issue.
 
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