My family members purchased a property roughly 20 years ago. My uncle's property (a coffee shop) is based in London; at the moment 50% of the share belongs to my uncle and the other 50% is owned by my aunt. I have been led to understand that they are able to gift my other uncle one-third of the property, resulting in each shareholder having one-third of the property. We were notified by some advisers that there will be a tax implication, yet some argued that there wouldn't be. So my question is whether there will be any tax implication with this process? If this gifting process doesn't work out would my other uncle be able to buy out the balance of the coffee shop from my uncle and aunty, and will there be any tax implications on either of them?  
 
Arthur Weller replies:  
Assuming they are not gifting a share in the coffee shop business, but only a share in the property, entrepreneurs’ relief will not be relevant here. Since this is a gift, and also a transfer between 'connected persons', HMRC’s Capital Gains manual (at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg14560 and CG14580) states that it is deemed to be sold at current market value. Even if your uncle pays for it, it will still be a transaction between connected persons, and the market rule will apply. So there will be a tax implication with this - capital gains tax. And if he pays for it, there will be stamp duty land tax.