One-third worried

I was both interested and alarmed to read Ray Magill’s article The neglected regime.

I deal with the simple income tax affairs of an elderly retired couple in their late 70s who in November 1997 gave a third of their home to their spinster daughter leaving the legal ownership as three equal equity tenants in common.

The house had been purchased in 1984 and now has a value of about £900 000. The daughter who is now 50 has always lived with her parents and contributes one-third of the ownership running costs with this cost figure being amended each year as necessary.

This arrangement was as advised by an independent financial adviser back in 1997 who referred to FA 1986 s 102B. This is still understood by the parents and daughter as satisfying exemption from the...