Rebecca Aldridge

Hi, my client has made a gift but I'm not sure how it would be treated from an IHT perspective. He gave away a piece of land that had planning permission on it, and some foundations for a house, to his child. Let's say it was worth £150,000. The intention from the start was he would move in with his child once the build had been completed. A year or so later, the child had funded the rest of the property build and Dad moved in. Let's say the property is worth £500,000 now. Dad does not pay rent. I'm not sure whether this is a Gift with Reservation of Benefit or not, because the gift that was made is not the same as the property that's now being enjoyed. Could you please give some guidance?

Hello, my client has the same NI number as another person. He went through a process with HMRC about 10 years ago when he was told he’d be able to keep the NI No and the ‘intruder’ would have to apply for a new one. However, the intruder has continued to use it. The tax accounts are muddled so my client has the intruder’s pension income showing on his tax coding notice, gateway account and so on. Attempts to sort this out by phone are proving fruitless. Who can we write to (email or letter) to get this resolved?

Hi JH, I didn't put this to the SDLT team in the end so I still don't know the answer and haven't been able to find any other information about it. But it does sound like the SDLT rules dictate the LISA position so that's probably the place to start.

My father is sure he accrued benefits in a defined benefit pension for several years but the scheme don't have a record of him. As it was a long time ago, he doesn't have any evidence. I thought there could be evidence of whether he was contracted out of SERPS at the time and if so, where his contracted out NI credits were paid. Would HMRC/DWP have that level of detail on their records? Where is the best place to request that information?

Thank you. Regarding the second part of my question, what is the position for someone using a Lifetime ISA to purchase their first home when they are shareholders of a company that owns a buy to let property?

A family has set up a limited company, with parents having 50% of the shares and the two children 25% each. The company owns 3 residential properties as an investment. Does the existence of that company mean the children are no longer first time buyers from the perspective of SDLT and using of a Lifetime ISA? Or is the company irrelevant? Many thanks