A tax question .

[finespineline]

I'll try to keep this brief
We own outright a rental property .
My husband is a higher rate tax payer.
I am retired so am on the basic rate.
Currently the rental income is paid via the letting agent to my husband. So this is taxed at the higher rate.
If the income was paid to me instead would this decrease the tax ?

Depends whose name the property is in. If the property is in joint names with 50/50 shares, you should both be declaring the income on your self assessment tax returns and paying the relevant tax, regardless of who’s account the money goes into.

Thankyou . Yes it is joint names.

Then you should be declaring half of the income on your own tax return. If you haven’t been doing this, you could go back to HMRC and declare the error and do a recalculation. Your husband may end up with a rebate, whilst you’d need pay tax on the rent you haven’t declared.

Yes as others have said, it should be 50/50.

Great thankyou all .