Why did Post Office broadband switch off my burglar alarm?
AS A Post Office HomePhone customer, I asked to add broadband to my package. I have a BT Redcare alarm system but was told the change would not cause any problems with this.
I was connected to broadband on October 20 and within five minutes of plugging i n the router, the alarm monitoring company rang to say my line had gone down.
HomePhone said it was a fault in my socket box. Then I was told the line was not compatible with Redcare and they would sort it out.
I then received a letter saying I would have to pay the full cancellation charge.
Next I was told this a was a mistake and my new line to Redcare would go live on November 4 but I would lose my broadband for five working days.
I have spoken at least six times to HomePhone, each call involving at least an 18-minute wait for a reply and have been continually fobbed off. I still have no alarm service and no broadband and frankly do not believe a word they say.
I. L., High Peak, Derbyshire.
THE Post Office is suitably contrite about your case. It uses different technologies depending on which services customers require.
Your old line was compatible with the alarm system. But when you swapped to the combined phone and broadband package, you were also moved to another technology, which did not support the alarm system.
Post Office admits its systems should have detected the link to your alarm and set up the service in the correct way. As you discovered, in your case it didn’t.
A Post Office representative has now spoken to you to apologise.
Your line is working with the alarm system, and you have received £48.50 as a goodwill gesture.
I HAVE spent years building up a second state pension on top of my basic state pension of £113 a week. It means I should be entitled to £224 a week when I retire in 2016. But the second state pension is being scrapped. Does this mean I will be stripped of the money I have built up over the years?
K. P., via email. NO. THE second state pension is being removed as the new flat- rate state pension of around £151 a week is introduced. However, anything you have built up before 2016 you can still claim.
MY WIFE and I own a rental property which we would like to gift to our eldest daughter.
However, we don’t have the ready cash to pay the capital gains tax, so an alternative would be to sell the property, pay the CGT out of the proceeds, and then gift the balance to our daughter.
What would be the capital gains tax and inheritance tax implications of each option?
S. G., West London
THEsE are complex matters and you have asked several more questions within your full letter.
To tackle them all in detail would require far more space than I have on this page and you really need to see a suitably qualified accountant. I put your questions to Patricia Mock, tax director of accountant Deloitte, and she has explained the main issues. First, if you were to gift the property to your daughter then CGT, which you will pay, will be based on the difference between the purchase price and the value at the time of the transfer.
But there are exemptions and reliefs that you can split between you if both husband and wife own the property jointly.
You would also each have an allowance of £11,000 this tax year before tax needs to be paid on the gain. CGT is then charged at either 18 pc or 28 pc depending on whether you are a basic or higher rate taxpayer. It could well be a combination of both rates if your gain pushes you into a higher tax bracket. Ms Mock says the tax will be due by January 31 following the tax year in which the property is gifted. so if you gifted it now, the tax would be due on January 31, 2016.
On inheritance tax, if you both survive for more than seven years no tax would be due.
However, for jointly owned property the value of the transfer is split between husband and wife and each are considered separately.
If either of you dies within the seven years of the gift, tax is chargeable on their share of the gift.
That share could fall within the nil rate band of £325,000. If the value of the transfer is greater than this, then the bill would be reduced by taper relief if the person dies between three and seven years after making the gift.
Ms Mock says that stamp duty land tax does not usually apply if property is gifted. However, if the property is mortgaged and the purchaser takes this on then sDLT will be due based on the normal sDLT thresholds. The above assumes the property is not in scotland, where different rules apply.
If you sold the property and gave the proceeds to your daughter you would pay the CGT out of the sale proceeds. You could give the remainder of the money to your daughter; t hi s would be a potentially exempt transfer (just as the gift of the house would).
so the same seven- year rule would apply, though, because you will have used some of the money to pay your CGT bill, the amount gifted would be lower.
stamp-duty land tax would not be an issue because this is paid by the purchaser.
Ms Mock says she has assumed that your daughter is an adult; that t he property t hat is t o be transferred is an ordinary rental property and not a f urnished holiday let; the property has not been lived in as a home at any point by either you or your wife; and the gift is outright, ie. neither of you will retain any interest in the property after the gift.