I own 50% of a property in Norwich as tenants-in-common with my brother. The property was gifted to us in 1995 and is freehold with no mortgage attached. I want to transfer my 50% share to three offspring in equal shares. My brother wants to sell his 50% share to my eldest offspring who has cash available to purchase my brother's share. The property in 1995 had a value of £80,000 and today's value is £260,000. We each have a potential capital gain of £90,000. There is no urgency to transfer or sell the asset in one tax year. My brother and I each have a spouse. How do we eliminate or minimise the capital gains tax (CGT) liability? Do I and my spouse need to jointly own my 50% share to utilise two lots of CGT allowance?

Arthur Weller replies:
Both you and your brother could gift half your share to your spouses respectively. Then each one of the four owners can gift/sell, before 6 April 2018, 25% of their share of the property. The capital gain on this portion should be approximately equal to the CGT annual exemption, currently £11,300. Then do the same thing on 6 April 2018. This will deal with half the property. However, to utilise your next available annual exemption you will have to wait until 6 April 2019, and by that time most likely the value of the property will have risen. But if you do the same thing on 6 April 2020, and the remainder on 6 April 2021, this should transfer all the property. If HMRC would agree that this is not a 'linked transaction' (i.e. not one arrangement) www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm30100, then this would also be efficient from a stamp duty land tax perspective.