Best structure for Basic rate tax payer and spouse who doesn’t have an income?

[damian haigh 0]

Hi, looking for some advice please on how to best structure our property portfolio. I’m a basic rate tax payer £33k income, my wife is a housewife with £3k taxable benefits income. We have remortgaged our residential property to release £150k of equity to start investing. How can we structure our first (joint) BTL property investment to take advantage of my wife’s income tax allowance? Would a declaration of trust and form 17 work given that my wife would not get a BTL mortgage on her own? How about us both becoming a Partnership and splitting the income via that route? Thanks for any help and advice.

[j lewis 5]

As long as the property is in joint names, then you will own the property jointly and enter into a Declaration of Trust to give your wife the majority of the beneficial ownership and income. A copy of the DOT needs to be submitted to HMRC with a Form 17 election for the income split to take effect.