What is the tax treatment for property 'trading stock' when it is sold if the property isn't fully owned by the property trader? I am a sole trader who has worked for two years on a property bought (jointly with my wife) with the intention of renovating it and selling for a profit. I understand that the profit coming to me will be liable to income tax. However, if 50% of the property is owned by my wife (who has only helped out with the work only a handful of hours per week on average), how does this impact on each of our tax liabilities?

Arthur Weller replies. 
It seems that you have a partnership here. In a regular partnership the income split is the same as the capital split. But if you look at HMRC’s Business Income manual (at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income- manual/bim82055), you can see that (at the right time) you can change the entitlement to income profits, so that it is different to the capital split.