I have a flat in Birmingham (not my main residence) which I would like to gift to my three children in equal parts, either directly or by moving it into a company and giving them the shares. Would there be stamp duty land tax (SDLT), capital gains tax (CGT) or inheritance tax (IHT) implications in either case? The property is worth more than £350,000.

Arthur Weller replies: 
With regard to SDLT, if you gift directly to your children, there will be no SDLT for them to pay if you don’t charge them anything for the purchase. However, if they want to buy a first home in the future, they will not be able to use the first-time buyers’ relief because of their part ownership of this property. If you gift to a company, the company will have to pay SDLT based on the current market value of the property, but your children will not lose their eligibility to the first-time buyers’ relief because of this. For CGT purposes, you will have to pay CGT based on the difference between what you originally paid for the property and its current market value. For IHT purposes, if you gift to them personally it will be a potentially exempt transfer, so if you live for seven years afterwards there will be no IHT for your estate. If you gift to a company, this will be a ‘chargeable lifetime transfer’ and assuming you have your IHT nil rate band (currently £325,000) available to you, any amount of the gift over £325,000 will be subject to an immediate 20% lifetime IHT charge.