property in my name split rent to my wife

Hi I have a flat which is in my name. I owned before i met my wife however it was our home until we moved into a new house and rent the flat out. I have declared the rental profits and we have shared this 50/50 on our tax returns. As I am a higher rate tax payer the rental income puts me over 100k which severely disadvantages us for child care. Can I change the way the rental income is distributed between myself and my wife to keep me under the 100k. can the split be something like 80/20 or 90/10 as i still need to claim the interest as an expense. ive received conflicting information on this and would just like a nice straight forward answer on how to do this. many thanks for your time

Is your wife named of the property deed? If she is and you are tenants in common, then you can ask a solicitor to produce a declaration of trust stating how much in percentage terms you would like to belong to your wife I.e. 90/10 split. Register this proportionment to HMRC using a Form 17 henceforth allowing you to declare 90% of the rental income in your wife’s name via self assessment, and 10% in your name, using this example.

Hi The flat is only in my name as I owned it before we were married.

Hi,

You are able to split the rental income between husband and wife in any proportion. You must completed form 17 decaration of how you wish the rental income to be split and a signed
Deed of Trust. 

Thank you.