I am looking at how best to optimise the tax position on joint share investments for my wife and I.
Going forward my wife will have little to no income, and therefore we would like to have all the dividends in her name, however I would also like to avail of the annual CGT exemption (€1,270).
Conceptually this is very simple. We set up a joint brokerage account. From 1 January to 30 December, shares are 100% in her beneficial ownership and therefore all dividends in the year are hers. On 31 December, my wife ‘gifts’ me the required shares to allow me to crystallise a gain of €1,270 tax free.
All fine, above board & compliant with our tax laws. My only question is whether revenue would automatically assume a ‘joint account’ was 50/50 beneficial ownership at all times and would a signed agreement between us to the effect of the above arrangement suffice?
If we were actually required to mechanically gift shares from an account in my wife’s names to an account in my name, this would be operationally cumbersome (I don’t think DEGIRO can facilitate this). For this reason I would prefer to keep the beneficial ownership notional and mutually agreed via a simple signed document.
I’m thinking the above would be fine but interested if anyone has any experience to the contrary or other ideas on how best to optimise.
Going forward my wife will have little to no income, and therefore we would like to have all the dividends in her name, however I would also like to avail of the annual CGT exemption (€1,270).
Conceptually this is very simple. We set up a joint brokerage account. From 1 January to 30 December, shares are 100% in her beneficial ownership and therefore all dividends in the year are hers. On 31 December, my wife ‘gifts’ me the required shares to allow me to crystallise a gain of €1,270 tax free.
All fine, above board & compliant with our tax laws. My only question is whether revenue would automatically assume a ‘joint account’ was 50/50 beneficial ownership at all times and would a signed agreement between us to the effect of the above arrangement suffice?
If we were actually required to mechanically gift shares from an account in my wife’s names to an account in my name, this would be operationally cumbersome (I don’t think DEGIRO can facilitate this). For this reason I would prefer to keep the beneficial ownership notional and mutually agreed via a simple signed document.
I’m thinking the above would be fine but interested if anyone has any experience to the contrary or other ideas on how best to optimise.