Mark McLaughlin looks at the distinction between legal and beneficial ownership of property for tax purposes.
Putting someone ‘on the property deeds’ is a popular phrase among taxpayers. It broadly involves changing the legal ownership of a residential or investment property (NB this article relates to a property in England and Wales, but not Scotland).
Legal vs beneficial ownership
It may be necessary to consider not only legal ownership of the property but also beneficial ownership, as the owners will not necessarily be identical.
Putting someone on the property deeds broadly involves changing the registered ownership of the property (e.g., transferring it into a family member’s sole name or adding the spouse as a joint owner) with the land registry.⯠â¯
The legal process is not addressed here; guidance on transferring
