Q&A this week looks at tax and site gifts and Stamp duty in Belfast

Tax and site gifts

I was interested in your answer last week in reference to Capital Acquisitions Tax and because I am wondering if it could apply to me. I was given a site by my father some years ago. Its value is well below the tax threshold of €466,725 mentioned by you as the point at which tax kicks in. The complication is that I now have a partner and, in order to regularise matters before we start building a house on the site, we want to put the site in joint names - but is that interpreted as my father giving a gift to my partner?

As you know no gift tax would be payable by the you because the site, which is valued below the threshold and is the only property given to you, was transferred directly to you by your father. However, you are correct in thinking that a third partner can complicate matters.

If a site is transferred to both you and your partner then your partner would be liable to gift tax if the value of the half-share of the site transferred to him exceeds €23,336 in value. This is because your partner is "a stranger-in-blood" to your father for gift tax purposes and the tax-free threshold for gifts to a stranger-in-blood is €23,336, with any value in excess of that figure being chargeable to gift tax at 20 per cent.

With the price of sites these days it's easy to see how people in your partner's situation can be liable for tax.

That's the position as regards Capital Acquisition Tax or Gift Tax but there is another tax, Capital Gains Tax, which might come into play.

You may be chargeable on both your father's gain and your own if you transfer an interest in the site to your partner for a period of three years after being given it.

Seek professional tax advice and legal advice to protect your interests in the event of owning property with someone to whom you are not married.

Stamp duty in Belfast

What is the position as regards stamp duty on properties in Belfast? I am looking into making an investment there (a house divided into two apartments for around £250,000). It is my understanding that most properties at the lower end of the scale have, since the recent UK budget, been taken out of the stamp duty net.

As you will already know, stamp duty in the North of Ireland is significantly lower than in the South and that stamp duty was one of the taxes altered in Gordon Brown's budget last week.

The changes apply to the lower end of the scale, but at £250,000 you are far from that. Basically, the new rules are to help first-time buyers so the lower threshold was doubled. Now properties up to £120,000 aren't liable for stamp duty (the pre-budget threshold was £60,000). Over £120,000-£250,000 it's 1 per cent, over £250,000-£500,000 it's 3 per cent, and over £500,000 it's 4 per cent.

As your price point is right at the threshold where stamp duty makes a considerable jump from one to 3 per cent, you should bear that in mind when you are haggling on a price.

• Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.