Minimising Taxes on Investments for a Married Couple

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Zion2022

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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.
 
The only thing I could be sure of is that a perceived transfer between a married couple could never be considered a disposal for CGT purposes - you would acquire those shares on the same terms as when your wife originally acquired the shares. So the annual allowance couldn't be utilised in that way.
 
rob oyle said:
The only thing I could be sure of is that a perceived transfer between a married couple could never be considered a disposal for CGT purposes - you would acquire those shares on the same terms as when your wife originally acquired the shares. So the annual allowance couldn't be utilised in that way.
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Yes precisely what I would want.
Say for example my wife has accumulated €2,500 worth of gains in a year. Transfers half to me on the terms that she acquired them.

We both sell. Crystallise €1,250 worth of gains each. No CGT due for either of us. She then rebuys the shares in her name. We both maximise the tax free exemption whilst maintaining our portfolio unchanged.
 
Zion2022 said:
No, it will be more beneficial for us to avail of the up lifted standard rate cut off and I understand you cannot have both.
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You're already ahead of me on that one.

I like to keep things clean so there's never any questions about whether something was benefially owned different to the legal ownership. Why not buy all dividend paying shares in her sole name, and everything else jointly?
 
You have to wait 4 weeks before repurchasing the shares sold to crystalize a loss
 
jpd said:
You have to wait 4 weeks before repurchasing the shares sold to crystalize a loss
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Usually it would be the purpose of crystallising a gain for which there is no waiting period. Also, for losses, you only have to wait 4 weeks to repurchase if the sale crystallising the loss was within 4 weeks of the first purchase so this rule is rarely a factor.

RedOnion said:
You're already ahead of me on that one.

I like to keep things clean so there's never any questions about whether something was benefially owned different to the legal ownership. Why not buy all dividend paying shares in her sole name, and everything else jointly?
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Yeah I was thinking this might be the other option, but I guess it necessities having two trading accounts and also limits flexibility to game the CGT a little bit. Probably worth the slight downside to keep things clean though, thanks.
 
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