Complicated gift/house purchase question

Q

qte

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Can someone shed some light on this one for me, please...? If I get a gift from my parents, which I then put towards a house (which I'm getting with my partner - who isn't married to me!), is my other half liable for gift tax?

I know I can receive said gift from my parents tax-free as it is under the threshold, but by buying a house with my partner am I essentially "gifting" her some of this sum too...?

If anyone has some first hand knowledge of a similar situation, I'd be very thankful!
 
A couple in a relationship who are not married to each other, are considered strangers from the point of view of tax legislation.
 
I know that alright, mirmick, but am I actually giving her any money? Is it not fair to say that we're going to pay off the mortgage 50/50 and I'm paying off a portion of my half of the house as opposed to just outright giving her some of the money? At no point will the money be entering her bank account. It's going straight into mine and from there onto the vendor of the house.
 
The other hand is that you both are entering a contract whereby you're both liable equally liable for 100%of something, and via your gift you'll be lowering the amount she's liable to pay...
 
Effectively what you are doing is "gift splitting" which is where a person who receives a gift passes it (or some of it) onto another person within 2 years. In such a case, the Revenue can deem that part of the gift to have come from the original giftor.

So, in this case, your partner could be deemed to be receiving a taxable gift both from you and from your parents. However, if you have your relative shares in the house set that you get a fair proportion more (based on the fact that you put up the deposit), then there will be no gift.
 
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