I am dealing with an estate whereby the Wife’s (deceased) main home was purchased with her late spouse and her two sons as beneficial joint tenants back in 1990.
The W & H were residing in the property, not paying rent to their sons and so is a gift with reservation of benefit in the half share that they did not own.
Husband died in 2021, meaning his 1/4 share was split amongst the three survivors and no reporting was done. Since husband’s death (about 4 months later), they have servered the tenancy owning a 3rd each.
My question is, now that Wife has died, does her proportion of the property change to 2/3rds for a GRoB or does it remain the 1/2 share that was originally given? She had not made a gift of her husband’s share of the property, it passed by survivorship by law so would the share that her son’s inherited come into the equation?
Assuming the couple did everything equally, I would have thought 7/12ths in total is subject to tax.
She owned 1/3 outright at her death, being the original 1/4 plus 1/12 from her husband.
She had a RoB in 1/4 that she gave away in 1990 (being her 1/2 of the 1/2 given to the sons).
On the understanding that H & W contributed all of the purchase price, I agree with Andrew’s analysis.
However, we are not told who contributed the purchase monies or in what proportions – so that any answer given is potentially incorrect depending upon the assumption made.
Paul Saunders FCIB TEP
Independent Trust Consultant
Providing support and advice to fellow professionals
Yes - H&W contributed to the purchase price, the children did not and have never benefitted from the property i.e lived there nor received their entitled share of the rental income for the short period it was rented