13 Surviving joint tenant deemed to take an inheritance, etc.

Summary

This section provides that, where joint tenants own property, on the death of one of them, the survivor takes an inheritance from the deceased joint tenant, as disponer.

Details

(1) Where persons are joint tenants and one of them dies, the survivor or survivors is/are deemed to have taken the deceased’s share as an inheritance derived from him/her/them, because the deceased could have made himself/herself absolute owner of his/her share up to the date of his/her death.

(2) Following the rule made by section 7 as to gifts, the beneficiaries of property left to persons as joint tenants will be taxed as if they took as tenants in common in equal shares. This is because each joint tenant has power to become the absolute owner of a share in the property by severing the joint tenancy.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2015